unconscious

1. 1
   adjective

   In a state of not being awake or aware of one's surroundings, as after a blow to the head.

   The driver remained unconscious for several minutes after the crash.

   Paramedics revived the unconscious hiker before carrying her down the trail.

   Similarsenseless, unaware, insentient

   Oppositeconscious, awake, aware

2. 2
   adjective

   Done or occurring without directed thought or conscious awareness.

   His unconscious bias affected the way he graded the essays.

   The dancer's movements were almost unconscious after years of practice.

   Similarsubconscious

   Oppositeconscious, deliberate, intentional

   Note

   Here the mind is at work but not steering: a sudden fright, a reflex, a bias nobody chose. Followed by of, the word takes an object and means "unaware of." Margaret Oliphant's The Wizard's Son (1884) shows a figure absorbed in his figures "as if unconscious of his presence." In current writing it often pairs with bias, as in unconscious biases. Subconscious is a close synonym in this sense.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The part of the mind whose contents are not consciously perceived.

   Freud believed the unconscious shaped much of human behavior.

   Repressed memories may linger in the unconscious for years.

   Similarsubconscious, subconsciousness

   Oppositeconscious

   Note

   The adjective turned into a noun, usually with the: the unconscious, treated as a region of the mind with powers of its own. William Irwin Thompson writes in 1981 that it "is outside time." Subconscious, subconsciousness and subconscious mind overlap with it. Set it beside the adjective for unthinking acts, which describes a response rather than a place. The rare plural is unconsciouses.

4. 4
   adjective

   Carrying out a skilled performance automatically, without conscious control over the actions.

   The point guard went unconscious in the fourth quarter, draining shot after shot.

   On the back nine she was unconscious, sinking putts from every corner of the green.

   Similarunstoppable

   Oppositecold

   Note

   Basketball talk for a shooter who cannot miss. Charles Rosen's player is "filling it, drilling it from every conceivable angle." It is praise, and players often claim it for themselves afterward: "I was unconscious." Alexander Wolff compares the state to the Zen ideal of suspending thought. It keeps company with in the zone and on a roll. Only context separates it from the knocked-out meaning.

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