negligence

1 failure to take the care that a cautious person usually takes exhibiting his usual negligence, he failed to set the emergency brake, and the car rolled down the steep hill and crashed into the telephone pole Synonyms carelessness, dereliction, heedlessness, incaution, incautiousness, laxness, neglectfulness, remissness, slackness Related Words foolhardiness, rashness, recklessness, wildness; neglect, omission; delinquency, irresponsibility, irresponsibleness, malfeasance, malpractice, misconduct; misdirection, mishandling, mismanagement; forgetfulness, inadvertence, inadvertency, inattention, inattentiveness, obliviousness, shortsightedness, unwariness Near Antonyms alertness, attention, attentiveness, awareness; circumspection, observance, vigilance, watchfulness; responsibility, responsibleness Antonyms care, carefulness, caution, cautiousness, heedfulness

2 the nonperformance of an assigned or expected action the factory's owners are being charged with criminal negligence for the fire that killed a dozen workers Synonyms default, delinquency, dereliction, misprision, neglect, failure, nonfeasance, oversightRelated Words carelessness, heedlessness, inadvertence, inadvertency, laxityNear Antonyms compliance, discharge, fulfillment (or fulfilment)