CARELESSNESS

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Failure to act with the prudence that a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances

Synonyms:

carelessness; neglect; negligence; nonperformance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("carelessness" is a kind of...):

nonaccomplishment; nonachievement (an act that does not achieve its intended goal)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "carelessness"):

dereliction (willful negligence)

comparative negligence ((law) negligence allocated between the plaintiff and the defendant with a corresponding reduction in damages paid to the plaintiff)

concurrent negligence ((law) negligence of two of more persons acting independently; the plaintiff may sue both together or separately)

contributory negligence ((law) behavior by the plaintiff that contributes to the harm resulting from the defendant's negligence)

criminal negligence; culpable negligence ((law) recklessly acting without reasonable caution and putting another person at risk of injury or death (or failing to do something with the same consequences))

neglect of duty ((law) breach of a duty)

dodging; escape; evasion (nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do)

Derivation:

careless (marked by lack of attention or consideration or forethought or thoroughness; not careful)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of not being careful or taking pains

Synonyms:

carelessness; sloppiness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("carelessness" is a kind of...):

inattentiveness (the trait of not being considerate and thoughtful of others)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "carelessness"):

incaution; incautiousness (the trait of forgetting or ignoring possible danger)

neglect; neglectfulness; negligence (the trait of neglecting responsibilities and lacking concern)

unconscientiousness (the trait of not being painstaking or careful)

Antonym:

carefulness (the quality of being careful and painstaking)

Derivation:

careless (marked by lack of attention or consideration or forethought or thoroughness; not careful)

careless ((usually followed by 'of') without due thought or consideration)

Credits

Context examples:

He is so; but then he is wholly uneducated: he is as silent as a Turk, and a kind of ignorant carelessness attends him, which, while it renders his conduct the more astonishing, detracts from the interest and sympathy which otherwise he would command.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It might have been that he took no notice because he was heavy with sleep. (He had been out all night on the meat-trail, and had but just then awakened.) And his carelessness might have been due to the familiarity of the trail to the pool.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

As for buttons, she soon learned to wonder where they went, to shake her head over the carelessness of men, and to threaten to make him sew them on himself, and see if his work would stand impatient and clumsy fingers any better than hers.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Supposing even that they had never become intimate friends; that she had never been admitted into Miss Fairfax's confidence on this important matter—which was most probable—still, in knowing her as she ought, and as she might, she must have been preserved from the abominable suspicions of an improper attachment to Mr. Dixon, which she had not only so foolishly fashioned and harboured herself, but had so unpardonably imparted; an idea which she greatly feared had been made a subject of material distress to the delicacy of Jane's feelings, by the levity or carelessness of Frank Churchill's.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I could not unlove him, because I felt sure he would soon marry this very lady—because I read daily in her a proud security in his intentions respecting her—because I witnessed hourly in him a style of courtship which, if careless and choosing rather to be sought than to seek, was yet, in its very carelessness, captivating, and in its very pride, irresistible.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Such royal carelessness of body seemed criminal.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I heard the word Burglum repeated incessantly: several of the emperor’s court, making their way through the crowd, entreated me to come immediately to the palace, where her imperial majesty’s apartment was on fire, by the carelessness of a maid of honour, who fell asleep while she was reading a romance.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The physician came and prescribed medicines, and the old woman prepared them for me; but utter carelessness was visible in the first, and the expression of brutality was strongly marked in the visage of the second.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The indirect boast; for you are really proud of your defects in writing, because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution, which, if not estimable, you think at least highly interesting.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

My business was to declare myself a scoundrel, and whether I did it with a bow or a bluster was of little importance.— 'I am ruined for ever in their opinion—' said I to myself—'I am shut out for ever from their society, they already think me an unprincipled fellow, this letter will only make them think me a blackguard one.' Such were my reasonings, as, in a sort of desperate carelessness, I copied my wife's words, and parted with the last relics of Marianne.