Gross negligence is a legal concept which means serious carelessness. Negligence is the opposite of diligence, or being careful. The standard of ordinary negligence is what conduct one expects from the proverbial "reasonable person". By analogy, if somebody has been grossly negligent, that means they have fallen so far below the ordinary standard of care that one can expect, to warrant the label of being "gross".
Read more about Gross Negligence: Criminal Law, Roman Law
Famous quotes containing the words gross and/or negligence:
“How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t, ah fie! ‘tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The youngest of four sons, but not the youngest of the family!—you conceive the sort of negligence that creeps over even the kindest maternities, in such case ...”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)