Word Finder - indifference

definition

The state of being indifferent.

definition

Unbiased impartiality.

definition

Unemotional apathy.

example

His daughter's indifference towards the sexist group made him wonder if she was even human.

definition

A lack of enthusiasm.

definition

Unconcerned nonchalance.

Under that facade of indifference beats a heart primed for breaking.

She was silent, and not only less pretty than at the ball, but only redeemed from plainness by her look of gentle indifference to everything around.

Prince Bagration screwed up his eyes, looked round, and, seeing the cause of the confusion, turned away with indifference, as if to say, "Is it worth while noticing trifles?"

After the fall of Struensee (the warrant for whose arrest he signed with indifference), for the last six-and-twenty years of his reign, he was only nominally king.

It is true that even by the most thorough-going allegorists the literal sense of Scripture was not openly and entirely disregarded; but the very fact that the study of Hebrew was never more than exceptional, and so early ceased to be cultivated at all, is eloquent of indifference to the original literal sense, and the very principle of the many meanings inherent in the sacred writings was hostile to sound interpretation; greater importance was attached to the " deeper " or " hidden " senses, i.e.

Then he lifted his head, stretched his neck as if he intended to say something, but immediately, with affected indifference, began to hum to himself, producing a queer sound which immediately broke off.

The indifference of the Jews to the desolate conditions of their sanctuary opens up a problem of some difficulty.

That science must be left free to determine the aims of her investigation, to select and apply her own methods, and to publish the results of her researches without restraint, is a postulate which Ultramontanism either cannot understand or treats with indifference, for it regards as strange and incredible the fundamental law governing all scientific research - that there is for it no higher aim than the discovery of the truth.

He looked up at the opening door and his expression of sleepy indifference suddenly changed to one of delighted amazement.

Besides being a busy natural philosopher, Boyle devoted much time to theology, showing a very decided leaning to the practical side and an indifference to controversial polemics.

Thus the Nestorian Church in India, voluntarily and with perfect indifference to theological dogmas, passed under Jacobite rule, and when early in the 18th century, Mar Gabriel, a Nestorian bishop, came to Malabar, he had a cool reception, and could only detach a small following of Syrians whom he brought back to the old Nestorianism.

Whether this type is more conveniently designated by the word Iberian, or by some other name (" Eur-african," " Mediterranean," &c.) is a matter of comparative indifference, provided that there is no misunderstanding as to the steps by which the term Iberian attained its meaning in modern anthropology.

With the dualistic philosophy is further connected an attitude of absolute indifference towards this lower and material world, and the practice of asceticism.

This attitude of indifference to real knowledge passed in the younger and less reputable generation into a corroding moral scepticism which recognized no good but pleasure and no right but might.

Tiberius appears to have received the news with indifference, if not with satisfaction; he absented himself from the funeral, and refused to allow her apotheosis; her will was suppressed for a long time and only carried out, and the legacies paid, by Caligula.

The conflagration, at which he had looked with so much indifference the evening before, had greatly increased during the night.

But her relations with Henry passed gradually through indifference to hatred.

These attempts meet with little success, owing in part to racial prejudice and in part to the indifference of the Arabs to education.

The well-known sentence of Carlyle, that it is "as far as possible from meriting its high reputation," is in strictness justified, for all Thiers's historical work is marked by extreme inaccuracy, by prejudice which passes the limits of accidental unfairness, and by an almost complete indifference to the merits as compared with the successes of his heroes.

The indifference complained of in Mal.

But the country, being in enjoyment of considerable prosperity, paid only a languid attention to the scheme; its indifference was reflected in the House; the Conservatives were encouraged in their opposition by the lack of interest which the new bill excited, and the almost unconcealed dislike of the prime minister to its provisions.

Julie responded like everyone else; with the usual dazed look of acute indifference.

Feigning indifference, she plays the coquette 's cheapest trick.

For this common basis, however, he did not succeed at first in finding any other than the merely negative expression of indifference.

There is no sign of any intimate knowledge of ancient or scholastic thought; to the doctrines of Spinoza, Leibnitz, Malebranche, Norris, the attitude is one of indifference or lack of appreciation, but the influence of Descartes and specially of Locke is evident throughout.

The fearful slaughter which took place before the British were masters of the defences caused Wellington to be charged with indifference to loss, but a postponement of the attack would merely have resulted in more battles against Soult.

The young poet wooed the girl with poems, romances, dramas and mute worship, but received nothing except chilling indifference and lively ridicule.

Administrative indifference to the eminently useful officials forming the service has led, in many cases, to diminishing instead of increasing their number and their salaries, but it is obvious that the extension of their duties and a corresponding raising of their status would be much more in accordance with the national interest.

As yet no means are known which call so much into action as a great war, that rough energy born of the camp, that deep impersonality born of hatred, that conscience born of murder and cold-bloodedness, that fervour born of effort in the annihilation of the enemy, that proud indifference to loss, to one's own existence, to that of one's fellows, to that earthquake-like soul-shaking which a people needs when it is losing its vitality."

In the Utopia, which, though written earlier, More had allowed to be printed as late as 1516, he had spoken against the vices of power, and declared for indifference of religious creed with a breadth of philosophical view of which there is no other example in any Englishman of that age.

Sixtus was far from blind to the Turkish peril, but here also he was hampered by the indifference of the secular powers.

He found their religious life too formal, external and worldly; and they could not sanction his comparative indifference to doctrinal correctness and his incurable tendency to separatism in church life.

The true interpretation of Grotius's mind appears to be an indifference to dogmatic propositions, produced by a profound sentiment of piety.

This indifference is not dictated by any realization that death means annihilation of the personality.

And in their indifference to the distinctions of race and nationality they merely accommodated themselves to the spirit which had become characteristic of chivalry itself, already recognized, like the church, as a universal institution which knit together the whole warrior caste of Christendom into one great fraternity irrespective alike of feudal subordination and territorial boundaries.

During the first century of the existence of the Gentile Christian Church, "the hope of the approaching end of the world and the glorious kingdom of Christ" was dominant, although warnings had to be given against doubt and indifference.

Little is known of the personal part played by Philip in the events associated with his name, and later historians have been divided between the view which regards him as a handsome, lethargic nonentity and that which paints him as a master of statecraft who, under a veil of phlegmatic indifference and pious sentiment, masked an inflexible purpose, of which his ministers were but the spokesmen and executors.

In other respects the writer displays the most complete indifference, and even ignorance, with regard to the state of affairs in the West.

While he emphasizes in the later sophists the consequences of the fundamental error of sophistry - its indifference to truth - he does honour to the genius and the originality of the leaders of the movement.

Then, after the indifference of humanists and Protestant polemic, came the disgust of men of science at the scholastic philosophy - an attitude best exhibited in Bacon's Advancement of Learning.

Moreover, the temper of these more enlightened men was itself opposed to Italian indifference and immorality; it was pugnacious and polemical, eager to beat down the arrogance of monks and theologians rather than to pursue an ideal of aesthetical self-culture.

Its acts, owing to the indifference of the settlers, had slight importance.

An example of this theory is the doctrine of the liberum arbitrium indifferentiae ("liberty of indifference"), according to which the choice of two or more alternative possibilities is affected neither by contemporaneous data of an ethical or prudential kind nor by crystallized habit (character).

Nothing but his curious indifference to the publication of his work prevented him from securing earlier recognition for it.

He even attacked Augustus (and perhaps Caesar), who treated the matter with indifference.

Preoccupied with his own ideas, he chafed under the indifference of thinkers who had grown blasé in speculation and fancied himself persecuted by a conspiracy of professors of philosophy.

He was either the founder or the formulator of the doctrine of indifference, according to which genus and species retain their identity in the individual apart altogether from particular idiosyncrasies.

From the first, it aims at propaganda; and the nationality of the convert is a matter of indifference.

The person of the individual ruler is, on the other hand, a matter of indifference.

Therefore the duty of the believer is to combat and destroy the unbeliever and the heretic. In short, the tolerance of the Achaemenids and the indifference of the Arsacids are now replaced by intolerance and religious persecution.