oblivion

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Forgetfulness

Nouns — oblivion, obliviousness, forgetfulness, obliteration (of the past); insensibility; failure, loss, or lapse of memory, amnesia, memory hole; waters of Lethe or oblivion, nepenthe; limbo. Slang, brain fart, senior moment. See inattention, nonexistence.

Verbs

1. forget, be forgetful, have on the tip of one's tongue; come in one ear and go out the other; misremember; forget oneself; unlearn, efface, obliterate; think no more of; drown one's sorrows or troubles; get over, put behind one. Informal, file and forget, kiss or laugh off; draw a blank; blow or fluff one's lines.

2. fall, sink, or fade into oblivion; let the dead bury the dead; let bygones be bygones (see forgiveness); slip or escape the memory; fade; lose, lose sight of.

Adjectives — oblivious, forgetful, mindless, nepenthean, Lethean; forgotten, unremembered, past recollection, bygone, buried or sunk in oblivion; clean forgotten; gone out of one's head. Informal, out to lunch.

Adverbs — in limbo.

Phrases — out of sight, out of mind.

Quotations — In violence, we forget who we are (Mary McCarthy), One keeps on forgetting old age up to the very brink of the grave (Colette), Forgive but never forget ( J. F. Kennedy), A good memory is often a great help; but knowing just when to forget things sometimes counts for more (Philander C. Johnson).

Antonyms, see memory.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Blankness]

Syn. forgetfulness, unmindfulness, obliviousness, Lethe, insensibleness, waters of oblivion, amnesia; see also carelessness , indifference 1 .

Ant. memory*, remembrance, recollection.

2. [Nothingness]

Syn. nonexistence, Nirvana, obscurity, nullity, nihility, void, limbo; see also emptiness , nothing .

Ant. existence*, fullness, being.

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) (VOCABULARY WORD) n.

[uh BLIV ee un]

the state of being totally lost and forgotten.

Most people fear that their names will be lost to oblivion after death.

SYN.: the forgotten, nothingness, void, *never-never land, nihility, nonexistence, space, obscurity, inexistence, extinction, unconsciousness. ''The swallowing gulf.''— Shakespeare.

ANT.: prominence, fame, notoriety. see emptiness

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun Freedom from worry, care, or unpleasantness: escape, forgetfulness, obliviousness. See SEEK.