INDEX:
1. to not pay attention to what someone says or does
2. to rudely pretend not to notice someone
3. to ignore something bad, even though you know it is wrong
RELATED WORDS
see also
↑ DISOBEY
↑ ATTENTION
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1. to not pay attention to what someone says or does
▷ ignore /ɪgˈnɔːʳ/ [transitive verb]
to deliberately pay no attention to what someone does or says, and pretend it is not important or does not affect you :
▪ She ignored my question and continued her story.
▪ Someone made a rude noise, which the teacher decided to ignore.
▪ My father’s always telling me what to do, but I usually just ignore him.
ignore somebody’s advice/warning
▪ It was very stupid of you to ignore your mother’s advice.
▪ Ignoring my warnings, he dived straight into the shallow water.
▷ pay no attention/not pay any attention /ˌpeɪ nəʊ əˈtenʃ ə n, nɒt peɪ ˌeni əˈtenʃ ə n/ [verb phrase]
to ignore someone or something, especially by not watching or listening to them :
▪ ‘What’s this injection for?’ he asked the nurse. She paid no attention, rolling up his sleeve in silence.
▪ People living near the crash scene paid no attention when they heard the aircraft’s engine cut out in mid-air.
pay no attention/not pay any attention to
▪ More than half the people questioned said they did not pay any attention to political broadcasts.
▷ take no notice/not take any notice /ˌteɪk nəʊ ˈnəʊtə̇s, nɒt teɪk ˌeni ˈnəʊtə̇s/ [verb phrase]
not to let someone affect what you do or the way you feel :
▪ Stan has fired me before. I usually take no notice and turn up for work again the next day.
take no notice/not take any notice of
▪ Take no notice of him. He’s just being silly.
▪ He never took any notice of the baby, even when it screamed.
▷ not listen to /nɒt ˈlɪs ə n tuː/ [verb phrase]
to ignore someone’s advice when they talk to you :
▪ You never listen to me. You just do whatever you want.
▪ It’s because you didn’t listen to Roger that you are in this trouble now.
not listen to reason
not listen to sensible advice
▪ We all warned Susan not to marry that man, but she wouldn’t listen to reason.
▷ fall on deaf ears /ˌfɔːl ɒn ˌdef ˈɪəʳz/ [verb phrase]
if your request or suggestion falls on deaf ears, it is ignored by the people who have the power to deal with it :
▪ The workers’ demand for a wage increase has fallen on deaf ears.
▪ As rioting continued, Mayor Warren appealed for calm, but his words fell on deaf ears.
▷ not want to know /nɒt ˌwɒnt tə ˈnəʊǁ-ˌwɑːnt-/ [verb phrase not in progressive] informal
to not be willing to listen to people’s problems, complaints, bad news etc because you do not want to be worried by them :
▪ You’d think the government would be concerned about people sleeping rough, but they just don’t want to know.
not want to know about
▪ If you’re going to start an argument with Alex, I don’t want to know about it.
▷ tune out /ˌtjuːn ˈaʊtǁˌtuːn-/ [transitive phrasal verb] especially American
to deliberately not listen to what someone is saying, especially because it is unpleasant or you have heard it before :
tune out something
▪ He had learned to tune out the kids’ constant questions.
tune something out
▪ There was a warning voice in the back of her mind, but she tuned it out.
2. to rudely pretend not to notice someone
▷ ignore /ɪgˈnɔːʳ/ [transitive verb]
▪ Don’t ignore me when I’m talking to you!
▪ Now that she had lost all her wealth, she was ignored by former friends.
totally/completely ignore somebody
▪ The waiter totally ignored Glen and served a girl who had come up beside him.
▷ pretend not to notice/see /prɪˌtend nɒt tə ˈnəʊtə̇s, ˈsiː/ [verb phrase]
▪ Henry waved but Martha pretended not to notice.
▪ If people think you’re a beggar, they pretend not to see you.
▷ look right through /ˌlʊk raɪt ˈθruː/ [verb phrase]
to pretend not to notice someone that you know, even though you are looking directly at them :
▪ I saw Carrie yesterday, but when I smiled at her she just looked right through me.
▪ In the lift at work, the doctors looked right through you as if you didn’t exist.
▷ snub /snʌb/ [transitive verb]
to ignore someone deliberately, in order to show that you are angry with them or that you have no respect for them :
▪ I couldn’t believe Simon had snubbed me at the party.
▪ The senator was furious. ‘How would you feel if you’d been snubbed by the wife of your president?’
snub somebody’s invitation/request etc
▪ They snubbed his invitation to a meeting of foreign ministers at the UN in New York.
snub [countable noun]
▪ Her absence was not intended as a snub.
▷ cut somebody dead /ˌkʌt somebody ˈded/ [verb phrase]
to completely ignore someone when you see them, especially because you are angry with them :
▪ I saw Josie today - she must still be angry with me because she cut me dead.
▪ Where he used to cut them dead, he now helps them on with their coats.
▷ blank /blæŋk/ [transitive verb] informal
if someone blanks you, they pretend not to notice you even though your eyes are facing theirs :
▪ I said hello to her in the street, but she just blanked me and carried on walking.
▷ send somebody to Coventry /ˌsend somebody tə ˈkɒv ə ntriǁ-ˈkʌv-, -ˈkɑːv-/ [verb phrase] British
if a group of people send someone to Coventry, they all agree they will not talk to that person as a punishment :
▪ Unfairly sent to Coventry for two weeks, Hannah decided to run away from school.
3. to ignore something bad, even though you know it is wrong
▷ overlook /ˌəʊvəʳˈlʊk/ [transitive verb]
to ignore something wrong that someone has done, especially because it is unimportant :
▪ I’ll overlook your mistake this time.
▪ Mrs Johnson tends to overlook any small faults the girls may have.
▪ Although this is a first offence it cannot be overlooked.
▷ let it pass /ˌlet ɪt ˈpɑːsǁ-ˈpæs/ [verb phrase]
to decide not to punish or criticize someone for doing something wrong, although you might do so if they do it again :
▪ I think they’ve broken the rules, but I’ll let it pass.
▪ Howard had insulted her, but she thought it better to let it pass this time.
▷ turn a blind eye /ˌtɜːʳn ə ˌblaɪnd ˈaɪ/ [verb phrase]
if someone in authority turns a blind eye to illegal activity or bad behaviour, they ignore it and pretend they do not know about it :
▪ If my sister did something wrong my mother always turned a blind eye.
▪ The guards turned a blind eye when the prisoners stole food from the kitchen.
turn a blind eye to
▪ The President could no longer turn a blind eye to the indiscretions of his Chief of Staff.
▷ shut/close your eyes to /ˌʃʌt, ˌkləʊz jɔːr ˈaɪz tuː/ [verb phrase]
to ignore something and pretend it does not exist because it is unpleasant or difficult to deal with :
▪ The officials in charge of the Chernobyl power station had shut their eyes to the danger.
▪ Of course, it is tempting to criticize other countries and close your eyes to all the problems of your own society.
▷ bury your head in the sand /ˌberi jɔːʳ ˈhed ɪn ðə ˌsænd/ [verb phrase]
to ignore an unpleasant situation and hope it will stop if you try not to think about it :
▪ You’ll never solve your problems if you just bury your head in the sand -- you have to face them.