inattention

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Lack of attention

Nouns

1. inattention, inattentiveness; abstraction, absence of mind, preoccupation, distraction; reverie, woolgathering, daydreaming, brown study, detachment; inconsiderateness, oversight; inadvertence, inadvertency; nonobservance, disregard; thoughtlessness, heedlessness (see neglect); insouciance, indifference; rashness. Slang, nobody home. See unpreparedness, disrespect, contempt, folly.

2. daydreamer, escapist. Slang, space cadet.

Verbs

1. pay no attention, disregard, overlook; pass by, neglect; ignore, think little of, wink at; close or shut one's eyes to; disdain, dismiss from one's thoughts or mind, reckon without; think no more of; set or put aside; turn a deaf ear or blind eye to, turn one's back upon, shrug off or away, laugh off; set aside; take no notice of, not give one the time of day. Dialect, pay no mind. Slang, space, zone out, let well [enough] alone.

2. abstract oneself, dream, daydream, woolgather; play possum; moon.

3. escape notice or attention; go in one ear and out the other; fall on deaf ears.

4. divert, distract, turn one's head; disconcert, discompose; confuse, perplex, bewilder, fluster, muddle, dazzle; put off. Informal, fuddle, rattle, faze. Slang, ball up.

Adjectives

1. inattentive; unobservant, unmindful, unheeding, undiscerning; inadvertent, regardless, listless, indifferent; blind, deaf; cursory; inconsiderate, offhand, thoughtless; heedless, careless; insensate.

2. absent[minded], abstracted, flighty, detached, distraught, distrait; lost in thought; rapt, in the clouds, in a fog; bemused, punch-drunk, slap-happy; preoccupied; engrossed; off [one's] guard; napping, dreamy, woolgathering, sleeping, asleep, groggy, dead to the world. Informal, asleep at the switch, out to lunch. Slang, spacey.

Antonyms, see attention, thought.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. heedlessness, negligence, distraction; see carelessness , indifference , neglect 1 .