OBLIVIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does oblivious mean? 

• OBLIVIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective OBLIVIOUS has 2 senses:

1. (followed by 'to' or 'of') lacking conscious awareness of

2. failing to keep in mind

  Familiarity information: OBLIVIOUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OBLIVIOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(followed by 'to' or 'of') lacking conscious awareness of

Synonyms:

oblivious; unmindful

Context example:

not unmindful of the heavy responsibility

Similar:

incognizant; unaware ((often followed by 'of') not aware)

Derivation:

obliviousness (total forgetfulness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Failing to keep in mind

Synonyms:

forgetful; oblivious

Context example:

oblivious old age

Similar:

inattentive (showing a lack of attention or care)

Derivation:

oblivion; obliviousness (total forgetfulness)

 Context examples 

A drunken man, snoring horribly in his breathing, was curled up in the passage, absolutely oblivious to the stream of people who flowed round and occasionally over him.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Altogether I was lost in amazement, and sat staring at her, quite oblivious, I am afraid, of the laws of politeness.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But the sweeter music was playing in my ears, and I was blind and oblivious to all about me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He tried to back away from her, oblivious to the fact that by his hold on her he dragged her after him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Passers-by probably thought them a pair of harmless lunatics, for they entirely forgot to hail a bus, and strolled leisurely along, oblivious of deepening dusk and fog.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He slept that night, and did his writing next morning, and then the book tempted him and he fell, reading all afternoon, oblivious to everything and oblivious to the fact that that was the afternoon Ruth gave to him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I remember that as I dropped off to sleep my last recollection was that Challenger was squatting, like a monstrous bull-frog, by the fire, his huge head in his hands, sunk apparently in the deepest thought, and entirely oblivious to the good-night which I wished him.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I tried to get him to talk of the incident, but he blandly asked me questions as to what I meant, and led me to believe that he was completely oblivious of the affair.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

In vain Alleyne bethought him of where he was, and of those laws of good breeding and decorum which should restrain him: those colored capitals and black even lines drew his hand down to them, as the loadstone draws the needle, until, almost before he knew it, he was standing with the romance of Garin de Montglane before his eyes, so absorbed in its contents as to be completely oblivious both of where he was and why he had come there.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Their determined rush carried the prize-fighters before them, the inner ropes snapped like threads, and in an instant the ring was a swirling,’ seething mass of figures, whips and sticks falling and clattering, whilst, face to face, in the middle of it all, so wedged that they could neither advance nor retreat, the smith and the west-countryman continued their long-drawn battle as oblivious of the chaos raging round them as two bulldogs would have been who had got each other by the throat.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)