irresponsible

From ir- + responsible.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɪɹ.ɪˈspɒn.sə.bəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɪɹ.əˈspɑn.sə.bəl/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˌɪɹ.ɪˈspɔn.sə.bəl/, [ˌɪɹ.ɪˈspɔn.sə.bl̩]

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

irresponsible (comparative more irresponsible, superlative most irresponsible)

1. (now rare) Not responsible; exempt from legal responsibility, not to be held accountable.
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Oxford, published 2009, page 28:

     They left the crown what, in the eye and estimation of law, it had ever been, perfectly irresponsible.

2. Lacking a sense of responsibility; performed or acting as though without responsibility; negligent.

irresponsible (plural irresponsibles)

1. Someone who is not responsible.

• unresponsive

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “irresponsible”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “irresponsible”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.