unattended

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ attended.

Adjective

unattended (not comparable)

1. Not attended; without persons present.

   The meeting went largely unattended, since it took place on Christmas Eve.

   System administrators may schedule an unattended installation of the software.

   • 1941 October, “Notes and News: A Highland Runaway”, in Railway Magazine, page 469:

     Considerable excitement was caused on the L.M.S.R. Aberdeen line out of Perth recently when a shunting engine in Perth North goods yard, whose driver and fireman were absent, was accidentally set in motion by a shunter and set off unattended on to the main line.

2. Not attended to; not receiving attention.

   The fire was caused by an unattended electric blanket.

   • 1987 August 15, Tom Keske, “Open Defiance of Sodomy Laws”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 5, page 4:

     I have been attempting to persuade gay organizations and leaders to take this approach, without concrete results. It is a serious failure of gay leadership not to have organized open defiance of sodomy laws, and my own attitude is not to wait for leaders when there is an unattended need.

Derived terms

• unattended installation

 

Translations

not attended

• Esperanto: seneskorte (eo)
• Georgian: დაუსწრებელი (dausc̣rebeli)
• German: unbeaufsichtigt (de)
• Hungarian: őrizetlen (hu), gazdátlan (hu), kíséret/felügyelet/őrizet nélküli

References

• “unattended”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.