ignoring

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of ignore.

   He spent the whole meeting ignoring his ringing phone.

   Ignoring the doctor's advice, she returned to work far too soon.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. It is the participle in a progressive (was ignoring the phone) and the gerund that heads a clause (ignoring the advice, she went back). Either way it takes a direct object, which sets it apart from the countable noun, built with of. Today it implies choosing not to attend. The older readings, failing to notice and simply not knowing, are obsolete.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The deliberate act of giving no attention or notice to someone or something.

   Her ignoring of the safety inspector's concerns later came back to haunt the company.

   The board's persistent ignoring of staff complaints fueled resentment among employees.

   Similardisregard, neglect, dismissal

   Oppositeattention, acknowledgment

   Note

   Unlike the gerund, this is a countable noun, and ignorings is its plural. William Henry Koebel's All Aboard: A Frivolous Book (1923) jokes about "two ignorings of a call" alongside revokes and trumpings at the card table. David Lewis, writing on epistemology in 1999, asks whether "our own ignorings" are what matter. The plural lets a writer count separate acts of not attending.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2