Negligent
adjective
Not giving proper attention or care to something that you are responsible for.
You've been negligent in your duties. The report should have been finished yesterday.
Often appears as...
- negligent in
- negligent of
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Causing harm or loss because of not paying attention or not doing what you should do.
The driver was negligent in maintaining his car, which led to the accident.
Often appears as...
- negligent driving
- negligent in maintaining
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
adjective
Not giving proper attention or care to something that you are responsible for.
You've been negligent in your duties. The report should have been finished yesterday.
Often appears as...
- negligent in
- negligent of
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Causing harm or loss because of not paying attention or not doing what you should do.
The driver was negligent in maintaining his car, which led to the accident.
Often appears as...
- negligent driving
- negligent in maintaining
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Responsibility Context
Use 'negligent' to express failure in meeting responsibilities or expectations.
The company was negligent in ensuring the safety of its products.
Pro Tip 2/3Attention to Detail
'Negligent' implies a lack of carefulness or detail, often causing mistakes or problems.
His negligent review of the document led to many errors.
Pro Tip 3/3Personal Accountability
Using 'negligent' implies that someone didn’t do what they were supposed to do.
She was negligent in not informing us about the schedule change.
Compare with
carelessinattentivelaxneglectfulrecklessresponsibleslipshodthoughtless
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Video examples
David Puttnam: What...
for our shared but increasingly endangered democratic values? After all, the absence of a duty of care within many professions can all too easily amount to accusations of negligence, and that being the case, can we be really comfortable with the thought that we're in effect being negligent in respect of the health of our own societies
Video examples
How stress affects your...
plays a part in determining how that baby responds to stress later in life. The pups of nurturing moms turned out less sensitive to stress because their brains developed more cortisol receptors, which stick to cortisol and dampen the stress response. The pups of negligent moms had the opposite outcome,
Video examples
Highway of Death PIPE...
collisions and knows all too well the repercussions of speeding or negligent driving this is where she goes flying off that's where she ends up right there sometimes you get there and everyone's already dead sometimes you get there and they're not you know they're dying in
Video examples
David Puttnam: What...
for our shared but increasingly endangered democratic values? After all, the absence of a duty of care within many professions can all too easily amount to accusations of negligence, and that being the case, can we be really comfortable with the thought that we're in effect being negligent in respect of the health of our own societies
Video examples
How stress affects your...
plays a part in determining how that baby responds to stress later in life. The pups of nurturing moms turned out less sensitive to stress because their brains developed more cortisol receptors, which stick to cortisol and dampen the stress response. The pups of negligent moms had the opposite outcome,
Video examples
Highway of Death PIPE...
collisions and knows all too well the repercussions of speeding or negligent driving this is where she goes flying off that's where she ends up right there sometimes you get there and everyone's already dead sometimes you get there and they're not you know they're dying in
Example 1 of 3
Quote examples
Steve Earle
American Musician
The idea that murder victims' families are best served by continuing the cycle of violence is something that I consider to be not only a lie, but criminally negligent. You lie to victims' families when you tell them they're going to receive closure if they participate in the process and witness the execution of a human being.
Quote examples
Boyd Holbrook
American Model
There was no theater in my high school. I think even our art program was cut - it was so bad. I didn't even know that was a possibility in college or in high school; I hadn't even thought of it. It was pretty negligent. My father has run a bulldozer all of his life, and my mom is in real estate.
Quote examples
Joe Sestak
American Politician
Before the CFPB, there was no single agency or entity within the federal government tasked with protecting Americans from predatory or negligent practices of banks, credit card companies, mortgage lenders, payday lenders, credit rating agencies and other financial service businesses.
Quote examples
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Japanese Soldier
Death seems to be a long way off. Is this not shallow thinking? It is worthless and is only a joke within a dream. It will not do to think in such a way and be negligent. Insofar as death is always at one's door, one should make sufficient effort and act quickly.
Quote examples
Bill Pullman
American Actor
I'm not a gardener. I don't have the consistency for gardening, and I have barely enough for an orchard. I don't embarrass myself. You have to be there tending and weeding. With orchards, you can go through negligent periods and recover.
Quote examples
Nina Bawden
British Writer
Ten thousand pounds is the legal value of a negligently taken life, of a child or a parent. A cold and somewhat mean-spirited calculation: you would do better if you slipped on a paving-stone and broke a front tooth.
Quote examples
Corrine Brown
American Politician
The punishment should fit the crime and if a doctor or drug company does harm knowingly or negligently to a patient they should be compensated to make them whole.
Quote examples
Simon Sebag Montefiore
British Historian
Yeltsin was admirable but flawed, noble but tainted, but in his own negligent grandeur, he undermined his own real achievements - and accelerated their ruin.
Quote examples
Trey Gowdy
American Politician
When people in positions of trust mislead us - either recklessly, negligently or intentionally - that impacts the republic.
Quote examples
Cleopatra
Egyptian Royalty
Celerity is never more admired than by the negligent.
Quote examples
Steve Earle
American Musician
The idea that murder victims' families are best served by continuing the cycle of violence is something that I consider to be not only a lie, but criminally negligent. You lie to victims' families when you tell them they're going to receive closure if they participate in the process and witness the execution of a human being.
Quote examples
Boyd Holbrook
American Model
There was no theater in my high school. I think even our art program was cut - it was so bad. I didn't even know that was a possibility in college or in high school; I hadn't even thought of it. It was pretty negligent. My father has run a bulldozer all of his life, and my mom is in real estate.
Quote examples
Joe Sestak
American Politician
Before the CFPB, there was no single agency or entity within the federal government tasked with protecting Americans from predatory or negligent practices of banks, credit card companies, mortgage lenders, payday lenders, credit rating agencies and other financial service businesses.
Quote examples
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Japanese Soldier
Death seems to be a long way off. Is this not shallow thinking? It is worthless and is only a joke within a dream. It will not do to think in such a way and be negligent. Insofar as death is always at one's door, one should make sufficient effort and act quickly.
Quote examples
Bill Pullman
American Actor
I'm not a gardener. I don't have the consistency for gardening, and I have barely enough for an orchard. I don't embarrass myself. You have to be there tending and weeding. With orchards, you can go through negligent periods and recover.
Quote examples
Nina Bawden
British Writer
Ten thousand pounds is the legal value of a negligently taken life, of a child or a parent. A cold and somewhat mean-spirited calculation: you would do better if you slipped on a paving-stone and broke a front tooth.
Quote examples
Corrine Brown
American Politician
The punishment should fit the crime and if a doctor or drug company does harm knowingly or negligently to a patient they should be compensated to make them whole.
Quote examples
Simon Sebag Montefiore
British Historian
Yeltsin was admirable but flawed, noble but tainted, but in his own negligent grandeur, he undermined his own real achievements - and accelerated their ruin.
Quote examples
Trey Gowdy
American Politician
When people in positions of trust mislead us - either recklessly, negligently or intentionally - that impacts the republic.
Quote examples
Cleopatra
Egyptian Royalty
Celerity is never more admired than by the negligent.
Example 1 of 10
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