Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use neglect in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Neglect means to fail to care for or attend to something. Example: “We can neglect this term, as it approaches zero in the limit anyway.”

Examples of neglect by meaning

verbTo fail to care for or attend to something.

  • to neglect duty or business; to neglect to pay debts
  • And that, together with the inherent yuckiness of the subject, means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair.2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891

verbTo omit to notice; to forbear to treat with attention or respect; to slight.

  • to neglect strangers

verbTo fail to do or carry out something due to oversight or carelessness.

  • A friend of mine who runs an intellectual magazine was grousing about his movie critic, complaining that though the fellow had liked The Godfather (page 58), he had neglected to label it clearly as a masterpiece.1972 December 29, Richard Schickel, “Masterpieces underrated and overlooked”, in Life, volume 73, number 25, page 22

verbTo ignore for the sake of simplifying calculations without significantly affecting accuracy.

  • We can neglect this term, as it approaches zero in the limit anyway.
  • This problem says to neglect air resistance.

nounHabitual lack of care.

  • Fifteen participants argued that the neglect of discourse on relationships had major implications for the ability of adolescents to acquire courtship skills and maintain relationships.2025 May 14, Carmit-Noa Shpigelman, Gal Hodara Hassan, ““The System Sweeps it Under the Rug”: Educational Staff’s Perspectives on Romantic...

More sentences with neglect

  • After years of neglect, the rusty old bridge could give way at any time.From the entry give way
  • The car's dull finish showed years of neglect.From the entry show
  • The failure was down to total neglect.From the entry down to
  • To concentrate on the bigger picture, I must neglect certain episodes of territorial reform.2025 April 15, Stephan Rindlisbacher, “Notes”, in Borders in Red: Managing Diversity in the Early Soviet Union (NIU Series in Slavic, East…. From the entry okruh
  • Alicia is not a serious ailurophile, however; she neglects Chestnut, and Chestnut knows it.2002, Carol Shields, Unless, page 195. From the entry ailurophile
  • This reference work, sociologically and Americanistically oriented, does not altogether neglect women.1981, Jacob Rader Marcus, The American Jewish woman, 1654-1980, page 193. From the entry Americanistically
  • But don't neglect downs and ’ludes and codeine cough syrup either.1979 March, P. J. O'Rourke, “How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink”, in National…. From the entry 'lude
  • And as Lesbians, that neglect of women in humanstory has been our deepest oppression.1974 February 9, Judy Stein, “As Lesbians, As Women...”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 33, page 4. From the entry humanstory
  • In the Cultural Revolution such pragmatism was denounced for neglecting politics and pursuing "capitalist restoration."1971, The Cultural Revolution in the Provinces, Harvard University Press, page 8. From the entry Szechwan
  • On the average delinquents have a normal intelligence; however, there is frequent neglect of intelligence.1961, Abstracts on Criminology and Penology, volume 1, page 398, column 1. From the entry debile
  • Mere neglect usually but adds illusion to the element of the picturesque.1933 December, Daniel O. Brewster, “Monograph Six: The Cottages of Cape Ann—Part I”, in Pencil Points: An Illustrated Journal for the…. From the entry plumbered
  • I WON'T give you any excuse hereafter for accusing me of neglecting to write.1920, Cicero, translated by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, The Letters of Cicero: The Whole Extant Correspondence in Chronological Order…. From the entry hereafter
  • "I won't neglect you for any one, will I, my preciouses?"1909, Mrs. Teignmouth Shore, The Pride of the Graftons, page 57. From the entry precious
  • In the UK, a combination of rust, banger racing and general neglect helped to diminish the number of Ventoras.2022 April 29, Andrew B Roberts, “UK's rarest cars: 1972 Vauxhall Ventora, one of only 30 left on British roads”, in The Daily Telegraph. From the entry banger racing
  • This book mentions childhood neglect and anti-autistic ableism.2021, Talia Hibbert, Act Your Age, Eve Brown, unnumbered page. From the entry antiautistic
  • Moreover, diminutives, augmentatives, pejoratives and amelioratives have always been analysed as independent categories, neglecting the possible interrelations among them.2015, Nicola Grandi, Edinburgh Handbook of Evaluative Morphology, page 4. From the entry ameliorative
  • To do otherwise is to ignore the bounties of technology—a culpable neglect—and to misprepare her for life and work after school.2015, Rand J. Spiro, Michael DeSchryver, Michelle Schira Hagerman, Reading at a Crossroads?. From the entry misprepare
  • As a parent, I think that it’s time to declare a period of benign neglect when it comes to food.2014 April 19, Mark Oppenheimer, “Let Them Drink Chocolate”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2022, retrieved…. From the entry benign neglect
  • There is no greater example of the wussification of America than than the growing neglect of our nation's infrastructure.2012, Ed Rendell, chapter 22, in A Nation of Wusses: How America's Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great, →ISBN, page 173. From the entry wussification
  • The insurrectionary spirit still had great value, but by neglecting modest means of struggle one ended up being powerless.2012, D. Turcato, Making Sense of Anarchism: Errico Malatesta’s Experiments with Revolution, 1889-1900. From the entry legalitarian
  • The Normans were putting it about that the Provençals were experts at foraging, to the neglect of fighting.2011, Conor Kostick, The Siege of Jerusalem: Crusade and Conquest in 1099, Bloomsbury, →ISBN. From the entry Provençal
  • Aesthetics aside, if you train your quads while neglecting your hamstrings, you're setting yourself up for an eventual injury.2010, Adam Garett, “Fried Hams”, in Reps!, 17:23. From the entry quad
  • Don't neglect to pick those male flowers that lack the bulge at the base that will become a zucchina.2009 June 5, Giusi, “Re: Zucchini Salad”, in rec.food.cooking (Usenet), message-ID <78s48pF1nt3d2U1@mid.individual.net>. From the entry zucchina
  • I deliberately choose houseplants that thrive on benign neglect.2008 August 6, Ann Lovejoy, “Gardening: Camp can be a ball for houseplants”, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, archived from the original on…. From the entry benign neglect
  • Blizzard has slammed the unhealthy practise of 'poopsocking'- the act of neglecting basic hygiene in favour of remaining at your PC.2008 November 18, Adam Hartley, TechRadar. From the entry poopsock
  • The neglect of plannees is an outgrowth of the type of technological thinking that regards every issue as a production problem.2006, Ursula Franklin, Michelle Swenarchuk, The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map. From the entry plannee
  • Neither is it the case that gnat-straining leads to camel swallowing, nor tithe-paying to neglect of justice, mercy and faith.1995, Kenneth G. C. Newport, The Sources and Sitz Im Leben of Matthew 23, page 141. From the entry gnat-straining
  • Or does he largely deserve his neglect?1977 August 20, Robert Etherington, “John Horne Burns and His Enemies”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 7, page 10. From the entry buffet
  • Whoever neglects his Easter duties or goes unconfessed for seven years finds himself changed into a rougarou at night.1961, Maria Leach, God Had a Dog: Folklore of the Dog. From the entry rougarou
  • Defecalgesiophobia is a common cause for neglecting the act.1934, George Morris Piersol, Edward LeRoy Bortz, The Cyclopedia of Medicine, volume 10, F. A. Davis Company. From the entry enema
  • "Don't neglect your friend on our account, Mr.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London. From the entry unlatched
  • Allegation is of independent neglect through nonconjunctive delinquency of defendants.1934, Maine Reports: Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, page 363. From the entry nonconjunctive
  • Some careless hostesses neglect to complete introductions.1921, Lillian Eichler, Book of Etiquette. From the entry discreditably

Meaning of neglect

  1. verb To fail to care for or attend to something.
  2. verb To omit to notice; to forbear to treat with attention or respect; to slight.
  3. verb To fail to do or carry out something due to oversight or carelessness.

Full definition of neglect

Questions about neglect in a sentence

How do you use neglect in a sentence?
Neglect is used as a verb and noun. For example: “We can neglect this term, as it approaches zero in the limit anyway.”
What is a short sentence with neglect?
“to neglect strangers”
What does neglect mean?
Neglect means to fail to care for or attend to something.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: neglect (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use neglect in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/neglect. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.