Definition of Negligence According to Winfield and Jolowicz, Negligence is the breach of a legal duty of care by the plaintiff which results in undesired damage to the plaintiff. Negligence is the failure to give enough care or attention to someone or something that you are responsible for. Learn more about the legal, business and general meanings of negligence , and see examples from the Cambridge English Corpus. Negligence , in law, the failure to meet a standard of behavior established to protect society against unreasonable risk.