► carelessnot paying enough attention to what you are doing so that you make mistakes, damage things, etc.: I made a few careless mistakes. The accident was caused by a careless driver.
► clumsy often dropping or breaking things because you move in a careless way: The waiter was clumsy and dropped the tray with our food.
► reckless doing dangerous or stupid things without thinking about your own or other people’s safety: The driver of the car was arrested for reckless driving.
► irresponsible careless in a way that might affect other people, especially when you should be taking care of them: It was irresponsible of her to leave small children at home alone.
► rash if you do something rash, you do not think carefully about the effect your action will have, and you wish later you had not done it: Don’t make any rash promises that you may regret later.
► negligent careless about an important job that you are responsible for so that serious mistakes are made. Used especially when someone will be officially punished for this: The jury determined that the doctor had been negligent in his treatment of the patient.
► slipshod done too quickly and carelessly. Used about a piece of work: Officials took money in exchange for allowing slipshod construction work on the tunnel.
► sloppy sloppy means the same as slipshod but sounds more informal: Some of the writing in your essays was very sloppy.