unconscious

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Not awake

   Not awake; having no awareness (usually as the result of a head injury).

   • After the anesthetist administered the general anesthetic the patient was unconscious.
2. 2

   Without directed thought or awareness.

   • My sudden fright was an unconscious response.
   • It was intolerable, he felt, to sit and eat in presence of that silent figure partly turned away from him, jotting down the different amounts on a bit of paper, and absorbed in that occupation as if unconscious of his presence.
   • Reshaping [of British Railways] was far from perfect. It was tainted by statistical overreach, the unconscious biases of its author, and by the political demands being placed upon the BRB by government.
3. 3

   engaged in skilled performance without conscious control.

   • Sam is unconscious, filling it, drilling it from every conceivable angle. Lem is awful and Cooper seems confused. Josh shoots too often.
   • "I was unconscious," the basketball player gushes. "It seemed like everything I threw up toward the basket went straight in."
   • Someone who has reeled off a string of baskets will say, "I was unconscious," as if he were following the Zen injunction to be mindful while suspending thought.
4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      That part of mind that is not consciously perceived.

      • Because the unconscious is outside time, it can perceive transformations beyond the limits of the ego.

The neighborhood