underattend

U1N1D2E1R1A1T1T1E1N1D2

verb

To pay too little attention to.

Scrabble 13
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Meanings

verbunderattend (third-person singular simple present underattends, present participle underattending, simple past and past participle underattended)

present singular third person underattends · participle present underattending · participle past underattended · past underattended · alternative under-attend

  1. To pay too little attention to.

    A few use more drugs than we wish to know; most are wonderful parents but some underattend to their children well beyond neglect.

    1998, Geoffrey Shacklock, John Smyth, Being Reflexive in Critical Educational and Social Research, →ISBN, page 20
    1 more example

    Although temporal and spatial thinking are never really alternative to each other, I've consistently tried in Touching Feeling to push back against an occupational tendency to underattend to the rich dimension of space.

    2015, David A. Gerstner, Julien Nahmias, Christophe Honoré: A Critical Introduction, page 40

Origin

From under- + attend.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

underattend. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/underattend

MLA

“underattend.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/underattend. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “underattend,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/underattend.

Source: underattend on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.