Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class IV. Words Relating to the Intellectual Faculties
Division (I) Formation of Ideas
Section II. Precursory Conditions and Operations

458. Inattention.

   NOUN:INATTENTION, inconsideration, want of consideration; inconsiderateness &c. adj.; oversight; inadvertence or inadvertency, nonobservance, disregard.
  supineness (inactivity) [See Inactivity]; étourderie [F.]; want of thought; heedlessness (neglect) [See Neglect]; insouciance (indifference) [See Indifference].
  ABSTRACTION; absence of mind, absorption of mind; preoccupation, distraction, reverie or revery, brown study [colloq.], woolgathering, moonraking [dial. Eng.], pipe dream [colloq.], castle in the air, château en Espagne [F.], fancy, deep musing, fit of abstraction.
   VERB:BE INATTENTIVE &c. adj.; overlook, disregard; pass by (neglect) [See Neglect]; not observe [See Attention]; think little of.
  close -, shut- one’s eyes to; pay no attention to; dismiss -, discard -, discharge- from one’s -thoughts, – mind; drop the subject, think no more of; set -, turn -, put- aside; turn away from, turn one’s attention from, turn a deaf ear to, turn one’s back upon.
  ABSTRACT ONESELF, dream, be somewhere else, be absent, be woolgathering, indulge in reverie or revery.
  ESCAPE NOTICE, escape attention; come in at one ear and go out at the other; forget (have no remembrance) [See Oblivion].
  call off -, draw off -, call away -, divert -, distract- the -attention, – thoughts, – mind; put out of one’s head.
  CONFUSE, disconcert, discompose, put out, perplex, bewilder, moider [dial. Eng.], fluster, flurry, rattle [colloq.], muddle, dazzle.
   ADJECTIVE:INATTENTIVE; unobservant, unmindful, unheeding, undiscerning; inadvertent; mindless, regardless, respectless; listless (indifferent) [See Indifference]; blind, deaf; hen-headed [colloq.], flighty, giddypated, giddy-headed, bird-witted; hand over head [rare]; cursory, percursory [rare], volatile, scatter-brained, harebrained; unreflecting, écervelé [F.], inconsiderate, offhand, thoughtless, dizzy, muzzy [colloq.], brainsick; giddy, – as a goose; wild, harum-scarum [colloq.], rantipole, heedless, careless (neglectful) [See Neglect].
  ABSTRACTED, absent, distrait [F.], woolgathering, moonraking [dial. Eng.], dazed, absent-minded, lost; lost -, wrapped- in thought; rapt, in the clouds, bemused, day-dreaming; dreaming of-, musing on- other things; preoccupied, engrossed (attentive) [See Attention]; in a reverie &c. n.; off one’s guard (inexpectant) [See Inexpectation]; napping; dreamy; caught napping.
  DISCONCERTED, put out &c. v.; rattled [colloq.].
   ADVERB:INATTENTIVELY, inadvertently &c. adj.; per incuriam [L.], sub silentio [L.].
   INTERJECTION:stand at ease, stand easy!    QUOTATIONS:

1. The attention wanders.
2. One’s wits gone a -woolgathering, – bird’s nesting.
3. It never entered into one’s head.
4. The mind running on other things.
5. One’s thoughts being elsewhere.
6. Had it been a bear it would have bitten you.
7. Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus.—Horace