OBLIVION

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Total forgetfulness

Example:

he sought the great oblivion of sleep

Synonyms:

oblivion; obliviousness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

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

forgetfulness (unawareness caused by neglectful or heedless failure to remember)

Derivation:

oblivious (failing to keep in mind)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of being disregarded or forgotten

Synonyms:

limbo; oblivion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

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

obscurity (an obscure and unimportant standing; not well known)

Credits

Context examples:

His guest had been outraged, his own life on a former occasion had been hideously plotted against; and both attempts he smothered in secrecy and sank in oblivion!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She could do justice to the superiority of Lady Russell's motives in this, over those of her father and Elizabeth; she could honour all the better feelings of her calmness; but the general air of oblivion among them was highly important from whatever it sprung; and in the event of Admiral Croft's really taking Kellynch Hall, she rejoiced anew over the conviction which had always been most grateful to her, of the past being known to those three only among her connexions, by whom no syllable, she believed, would ever be whispered, and in the trust that among his, the brother only with whom he had been residing, had received any information of their short-lived engagement.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I have a dim half-remembrance of long, anxious times of waiting and fearing; darkness in which there was not even the pain of hope to make present distress more poignant: and then long spells of oblivion, and the rising back to life as a diver coming up through a great press of water.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The same lulling sounds acted as a lullaby to my too keen sensations; when I placed my head upon my pillow, sleep crept over me; I felt it as it came and blessed the giver of oblivion.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

And then came a sudden rush of blackness and oblivion.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Then came another rush of sea-fog, greater than any hitherto—a mass of dank mist, which seemed to close on all things like a grey pall, and left available to men only the organ of hearing, for the roar of the tempest, and the crash of the thunder, and the booming of the mighty billows came through the damp oblivion even louder than before.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"I'd a little rather not be the polo player," said Tom pleasantly, "I'd rather look at all these famous people in—in oblivion."

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Tom appeared from his oblivion as we were sitting down to supper together. "Do you mind if I eat with some people over here?" he said. "A fellow's getting off some funny stuff."