neglect

CEFRB2

/nɪˈɡlɛkt/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To fail to give proper care or attention.

  2. 02

    noun

    Lack of proper care or attention.

Examples

  • The buildings are crumbling from years of neglect.

  • You can't afford to neglect your health.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To omit to notice; to forbear to treat with attention or respect; to slight.

  2. To fail to care for or attend to something.

  3. To fail to do or carry out something due to oversight or carelessness.

More examples

In context

  • You must account for your neglect of duty.

  • We can neglect this term, as it approaches zero in the limit anyway.

  • to neglect duty or business; to neglect to pay debts

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The owner began to blank his plants, so they all died from lack of water.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

The verb is inherited from Middle English neglect, neclect, derived from Latin neglēctus, perfect passive participle of neglegō (“to make light of, disregard, not to pick up”), itself from nec (“not”) + legō (“to pick up, select”). The noun is from neglēctus (“neglect”). First attested in 1460, the noun in 1588.