attention

attention 1 Attention, study, concentration, application can mean the direct focusing of the mind on something, especially on something to be learned, worked out, or dealt with.

Attention is applicable to the faculty or power as well as to the act

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noises that distract one’s attention

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if we had to think about breathing or digesting . . . we should have no attention to spare for anything else— Shaw

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every awareness is the simple form of attention— Alexander

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Since the word carries no inherent implications about the power or the act or of the length of the latter’s duration, it usually requires qualifying words or phrases

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close attention

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trained habits of attention

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a few moments’ attention

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Study stresses continuity and closeness of attention; it usually also implies an aim such as the acquisition of knowledge, or the analysis of something that is complex or confusing, or the working out of a plan (as for action) or of a design (as for a book)

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the president said that he would not comment upon the proposal until he had given it further study

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of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh— Eccles 12:12

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Concentration emphasizes the centering of the attention on one thing to the exclusion of everything else

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amazing powers of concentration

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the learning to read poetry takes as much patience and concentration as the learning to write it— Day Lewis

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Application usually implies persistence in fixing one’s attention, and diligence and assiduity in the performance of all that is required; it suggests therefore a virtue won by effort and sheer force of will rather than (as with concentration) a power that has its origin in one’s temperament or is the result of profound interest

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application for ever so short a time kills me— Lamb

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her application to her studies in school— Anderson

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Analogous words: diligence, assiduity, sedulousness, industriousness (see corresponding adjectives at BUSY)

Antonyms: inattention

Contrasted words: preoccupation, abstraction, absentmindedness (see corresponding adjectives at ABSTRACTED)

2 *courtesy, gallantry, amenity

Analogous words: courting or court, wooing (see corresponding verbs at INVITE): deference, homage, *honor, reverence: solicitude (see CARE)

Contrasted words: neglect, *negligence: indifference, aloofness, unconcernedness or unconcern (see corresponding adjectives at INDIFFERENT): rudeness, discourteousness or discourtesy, impoliteness (see corresponding adjectives at RUDE)