Part 21

2. Unacquainted with; unconscious or unaware; -- used with of.

Ignorant of guilt, I fear not shame.

Dryden.

3. Unknown; undiscovered. [Obs.]

Ignorant concealment.

Shak.

Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed?

Shak.

4. Resulting from ignorance; foolish; silly.

His shipping, Poor ignorant baubles! -- on our terrible seas, Like eggshells moved.

Shak.

Syn. -- Uninstructed; untaught; unenlightened; uninformed; unlearned; unlettered; illiterate. -- Ignorant, Illiterate. Ignorant denotes want of knowledge, either as to single subject or information in general; illiterate refers to an ignorance of letters, or of knowledge acquired by reading and study. In the Middle Ages, a great proportion of the higher classes were illiterate, and yet were far from being ignorant, especially in regard to war and other active pursuits.

In such business Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant More learned than the ears.

Shak.

In the first ages of Christianity, not only the learned and the wise, but the ignorant and illiterate, embraced torments and death.

Tillotson.

Ig"no*rant, n. A person untaught or uninformed; one unlettered or unskilled; an ignoramous.

Did I for this take pains to teach Our zealous ignorants to preach?

Denham.

Ig"no*rant*ism (?), n. The spirit of those who extol the advantage of ignorance; obscurantism.

Ig"no*rant*ist, n. One opposed to the diffusion of knowledge; an obscurantist.

Ig"no*rant*ly, adv. In a ignorant manner; without knowledge; inadvertently.

Whom therefoer ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

Acts xvii. 23.

Ig*nore" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ignored (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Ignoring.] [L. ignorare; pref. in- not + the root of gnarus knowing, noscere to become acquainted with. See Know, and cf. Narrate.] 1. To be ignorant of or not acquainted with. [Archaic]

Philosophy would solidly be established, if men would more carefully distinguish those things that they know from those that they ignore.

Boyle.

2. (Law) To throw out or reject as false or ungrounded; -- said of a bill rejected by a grand jury for want of evidence. See Ignoramus.