17 uses
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Definition
without interest
in various senses, including:
- unconcerned — as in "She is indifferent to what is served to eat."
- unsympathetic — as in "She is indifferent to his needs."
- not of good quality (which may imply average or poor quality depending upon context) — as in "an indifferent performance"
- impartial — as in "We need a judge who is indifferent."
- I am then indifferent, my soul declines to preferBook 5 — CALAMUS (7% in)
indifferent = without interest
- Not the types set up by the printer return their impression, the meaning, the main concern, Any more than a man's substance and life or a woman's substance and life return in the body and the soul, Indifferently before death and after death.Book 2 — Starting from Paumanok (65% in)
- ...I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city I live in, or the nation, The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors old and new, My dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues, The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I love, The sickness of one of my folks or of myself, or ill-doing or loss or lack of money, or depressions or exaltations, Battles, the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful news, the fitful events;...Book 3 — Song of Myself (5% in)
- Evil propels me and reform of evil propels me, I stand indifferent, My gait is no fault-finder's or rejecter's gait, I moisten the roots of all that has grown.Book 3 — Song of Myself (36% in)
- ...by my lovers, my dear friends, When he whom I love travels with me or sits a long while holding me by the hand, When the subtle air, the impalpable, the sense that words and reason hold not, surround us and pervade us, Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom, I am silent, I require nothing further, I cannot answer the question of appearances or that of identity beyond the grave, But I walk or sit indifferent, I am satisfied, He ahold of my hand has completely satisfied me.Book 5 — CALAMUS (39% in)
- ...it forth, Who often walk'd lonesome walks thinking of his dear friends, his lovers, Who pensive away from one he lov'd often lay sleepless and dissatisfied at night, Who knew too well the sick, sick dread lest the one he lov'd might secretly be indifferent to him, Whose happiest days were far away through fields, in woods, on hills, he and another wandering hand in hand, they twain apart from other men, Who oft as he saunter'd the streets curv'd with his arm the shoulder of his friend,...Book 5 — CALAMUS (45% in)
- All you continentals of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, indifferent of place!Book 6 — Salut au Monde! (86% in)
- He says indifferently and alike How are you friend? to the President at his levee, And he says Good-day my brother, to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-field, And both understand him and know that his speech is right.Book 9 — Song of the Answerer (40% in)
- ...would sing your contest for the 19th Presidentiad, I would sing how an old man, tall, with white hair, mounted the scaffold in Virginia, (I was at hand, silent I stood with teeth shut close, I watch'd, I stood very near you old man when cool and indifferent, but trembling with age and your unheal'd wounds you mounted the scaffold;) I would sing in my copious song your census returns of the States, The tables of population and products, I would sing of your ships and their cargoes, The...Book 17 — BIRDS OF PASSAGE (79% in)
- How you sprang—how you threw off the costumes of peace with indifferent hand, How your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and fife were heard in their stead, How you led to the war, (that shall serve for our prelude, songs of soldiers,) How Manhattan drum-taps led.Book 21 — DRUM-TAPS (1% in)
- Keep on—Liberty is to be subserv'd whatever occurs; That is nothing that is quell'd by one or two failures, or any number of failures, Or by the indifference or ingratitude of the people, or by any unfaithfulness, Or the show of the tushes of power, soldiers, cannon, penal statutes.Book 24 — AUTUMN RIVULETS (31% in)
- ...name, but I understand you, I specify you with joy O my comrade to salute you, and to salute those who are with you, before and since, and those to come also, That we all labor together transmitting the same charge and succession, We few equals indifferent of lands, indifferent of times, We, enclosers of all continents, all castes, allowers of all theologies, Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men, We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject not the disputers nor any...Book 24 — AUTUMN RIVULETS (65% in)
- ...you, I specify you with joy O my comrade to salute you, and to salute those who are with you, before and since, and those to come also, That we all labor together transmitting the same charge and succession, We few equals indifferent of lands, indifferent of times, We, enclosers of all continents, all castes, allowers of all theologies, Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men, We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject not the disputers nor any thing that is asserted,...Book 24 — AUTUMN RIVULETS (65% in)
- To think how eager we are in building our houses, To think others shall be just as eager, and we quite indifferent.Book 29 — To Think of Time (21% in)
- ...the living; And what I dream'd I will henceforth tell to every person and age, And I stand henceforth bound to what I dream'd, And now I am willing to disregard burial-places and dispense with them, And if the memorials of the dead were put up indifferently everywhere, even in the room where I eat or sleep, I should be satisfied, And if the corpse of any one I love, or if my own corpse, be duly render'd to powder and pour'd in the sea, I shall be satisfied, Or if it be distributed to...Book 30 — WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY DEATH (36% in)
- Where has fail'd a perfect return indifferent of lies or the truth?Book 32 — FROM NOON TO STARRY NIGHT (55% in)
- Indifferently, 'mid public, private haunts, in solitude, Behind the mountain and the wood, Companion of the city's busiest streets, through the assemblage, It and its radiations constantly glide.Book 32 — FROM NOON TO STARRY NIGHT (60% in)
There are no more uses of "indifferent" in Leaves of Grass.
Typical Usage
(best examples)