noun

• 1The state of being unaware or unconscious of what is happening around one.

  ‘they drank themselves into oblivion’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Brad only groaned once as Kurt and Vincent lifted him between them, and then the dark and painless unconscious oblivion claimed him again.’
  • ‘Our sages teach us that our oblivion, our unawareness of the full ramifications of every harsh word and action, lasts only until the day of death.’
  • ‘The oblivion of unconsciousness was creeping up on her at its leisure, and she would make him regret murdering her too slowly.’
  • ‘James spent the next two days floating in and out of oblivion, completely unaware of his arrival in Amsterdam.’
  • ‘We were all too busy smoking dope, but even if we did drink it was never the full-on race to oblivion that happens today.’
  • ‘Even if I don't sink into oblivion, drifting near the verge allows my subconscious to bubble up and provide answers.’
  • ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, let me sink into oblivion.’
  • ‘The darkness thickens, closes in on me, drawing me into these eyes, and my surroundings sink into oblivion.’
  • ‘Drowsiness overcame her, and she crumpled to the floor, letting herself sink into dark oblivion.’
  • ‘So sleep is just this sort of period of oblivion that happens - that we're not conscious of at the time.’
  • ‘He flung an arm across his face to shield off wakefulness, hoping to sink back into sweet oblivion.’
  • ‘Maybe you just sit in a corner and sink quietly into oblivion, snoring loudly for the rest of the evening.’
  • ‘He is put in the car and driven to casualty, yet another client for the overworked hospital staff, yet another bed being taken up by a person who has drank themselves into oblivion.’
  • ‘As he beds a procession of desperate chorus girls and barmaids, his long-suffering wife, Phoebe, drinks herself into oblivion in their ramshackle bedsit.’
  • ‘It's the freedom to drink yourself into oblivion.’
  • ‘When they do drink, though, they go for it; they will drink to oblivion and beyond, and the binges will get longer and the periods between shorter and more remorseful.’
  • ‘But most famously he used to drink himself into oblivion.’
  • ‘At some point he abandoned the family and drank himself into oblivion.’
  • ‘She has revealed that, when she heard news of the affair, she drank herself into oblivion with friends.’
  • ‘I remember that night you came into Bailey's to drink yourself into oblivion after Katherine died.’

  Synonyms

  unconsciousness, insensibility, stupor, stupefaction, senselessness, blankness, darkness

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  1. 1.1The state of being forgotten, especially by the public.
     ‘his name will fade into oblivion’
     More example sentences

     • ‘For the unsuccessful ones, their ordeal simply fades into public oblivion.’
     • ‘And like the unperfected Polaroid of a beginning we've forgotten, it should fade into oblivion in no time.’
     • ‘So yet another great album was destined to fade into oblivion, before being picked up on by a few musos, plundered for sounds and style, hailed in retrospect as a classic and finally reissued on CD.’
     • ‘Last year this particular meet was not held, and had it not raced last weekend, the old favourite in the Tennant Creek sporting calendar could well have faded into oblivion.’
     • ‘Perpetually regenerating, these ‘super stars’ never fade into oblivion, only becoming brighter and brighter.’
     • ‘Her voice, her message, had little appeal after the Second World War, and her name, once instantly recognized by all, faded into virtual oblivion.’
     • ‘This clearly didn't happen, and their choice then was whether the fade off into oblivion or whether to actually do something.’
     • ‘Sunaryo says his installation is just to remind us of the large scenario that feeds the acts of war and violence, without which the weapons industry would fade into oblivion.’
     • ‘While some of these games have retained popularity and are often played at a competitive level, there are many smaller games, which seem to have faded into oblivion.’
     • ‘As for 90 octane gasoline, there are strong indications that it will slowly fade into oblivion, hopefully unnoticed until it ceases to exist.’
     • ‘While the old traditions still excite, craftspersons should be taught to cater to the contemporary market without which they will fade into oblivion.’
     • ‘And as Rudy discovered during a visit, urgent help is needed to prevent them from fading into oblivion.’
     • ‘He said many producers were neck-deep in debts and had faded into oblivion after producing a couple of films.’
     • ‘These songs have set the trend for melody and have evoked the nostalgia, which was fading into oblivion.’
     • ‘Filed away in studios or tucked deeply in the archives of a few public collections, these prints lapsed from obscurity into oblivion.’
     • ‘Conscious or not, this film is strong and will be remembered long after many other sweeter, more conventional favourites have faded into unobtrusive oblivion.’
     • ‘To be sure, Hong Kong isn't about to fade into oblivion.’
     • ‘The immigrant recorded the urban culture in which he found himself; the native son preserved a rural world that was fading into oblivion.’
     • ‘Many coaches would have faded into assistant coach oblivion.’
     • ‘This is great, comprehensive stuff, worth preserving as the laserdisc format fades into oblivion.’
     Synonyms

     insignificance, inconspicuousness, unimportance, anonymity, lack of fame, lack of honour, lack of recognition, lack of renown, non-recognition, ingloriousness, limbo, twilight, oblivion

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  2. 1.2Destruction or extinction.
     ‘only our armed forces stood between us and oblivion’
     More example sentences

     • ‘It feels as though I'm rescuing lives from oblivion, from utter destruction by the Garbage Truck of Fate.’
     • ‘Of course, there are also those who do not subscribe to any religious faith and who may believe that death leads to nothingness, oblivion.’
     • ‘During the Ottoman conquest of the end of that century Perperikon has been conquered, destroyed and doomed to oblivion.’
     • ‘Somewhere out in eternity lie apocalypse and oblivion.’
     • ‘The world was spiralling into oblivion, to nothingness.’
     • ‘Communion and oblivion, sex and death, the mystery can be revealed - but it can be revealed only as totally inexplicable.’
     • ‘They heard a great crashing and smashing of things before it gathered beyond the barricaded door breathing stillness and the chill of death and oblivion through the cracks in the door.’
     • ‘The star is not the dissolution of individualism into death and oblivion but the freezing of particularity into an eternal image of itself.’
     • ‘He decided it didn't matter; he was nothing, if oblivion wished to claim him in his sleep then let it.’
     • ‘Not until life and existence implode into oblivion, nothingness, will the fighting end.’
     • ‘As she died, he doomed her soul to oblivion and swept his hand over Sonaro.’
     • ‘As she felt enough power ready to burst her hand body to oblivion and death.’
     • ‘However, this can lead to a certain sort of oblivion, the void, if you will.’
     • ‘I had to start thinking about this at the age of eleven, and used to keep myself up for hours contemplating my own death and oblivion.’
     • ‘When I came to, four hours later, it occurred to me that I had gone through, but not experienced, the oblivion of death.’
     • ‘We were there to see what would have been the apocalypse, the oblivion, the end.’
     • ‘They will be killed and burned to ash, an eternal death, an absolute oblivion of which there is no return.’
     • ‘Democracy will make it's last fall into the oblivion of an Imperial corporate state bent on world destruction.’
     • ‘Lifting his hand, Shanza barely had time to wrap his blood-smeared fingers around the smooth shaft and yank before his knee collided with the ground and he sank into oblivion.’
     • ‘The next step is oblivion, sleepiness and coma.’
     Synonyms

     obscurity, non-existence, limbo, void, vacuum, nothingness, nihility, nullity, extinction, anonymity, neglect, disregard

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• 2Law
  historical Amnesty or pardon.

  Synonyms

  reprieve, free pardon, general pardon, amnesty, exoneration, exculpation, release, acquittal, discharge

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