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neglectful

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,020 of 15,258neutral

Neglectful means failing to give the care that is owed. A neglectful parent, neglectful of his duties, neglectful care.

The duty is what makes it a fault: you can only be neglectful of something you were responsible for, which is why the word appears in law and in complaints rather than in ordinary description. Neglect as a legal category is failing to act rather than acting badly. Note that the Latin means not to pick up.

Definitions of neglectful

  1. 1adjectiveneglectfulFailing to give the care that is owed.C1

    “The neglectful owners left their dog without food or water for days.”

neglectful is a quality of failing in care.

Where it comes from

Neglect plus -ful, from Latin neglegere — nec plus legere, to pick up or choose. Elect and collect come from the same choosing.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *leǵ-

  2. Latin

    neglēctus

  3. Middle English

    neglecten

  4. English

    neglect

  5. English, today

    neglectful

Built from

  • neglegō · Latin — to make light of, disregard, not to pick up
  • nec · Latin — not
  • legō · Latin — to pick up, select
  • neglēctus · Latin — neglect

From neglect + ful. neglect The verb is Middle English neglecten, 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”). 1460, the noun in 1588.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Moods & Relationships

Practise this word

neglectful in the wild

  • Children might come from abusive or neglectful homes, or live in very poor and dangerous communities.

    Child and family services

  • In those fifteen years the four-cell jail saw death and disease from neglectful conditions.

    Old Fauquier County Jail

  • The story follows four children trying to find new parents to replace their self-centered and neglectful ones.

    The Willoughbys

  • Orphaned as a child, he was left in the care of a neglectful tutor.

    Constantin I. Nottara

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the legō family

lessoncollectlegend

neglectful — used about once every 11,558 pages · #12,020 · point at the bar for the others