tune out

verb

1. informal,  to cease to take an interest (in) or pay attention (to)

   many people had tuned out of politics

Idioms and Phrases

Adjust a receiver so as not to receive a signal, as in Let's tune out all this interference . [Early 1900s]

Dissociate oneself from one's surroundings; also, disregard, ignore. For example, The average reader, used to seeing lots of color images, tunes out when confronted with big blocks of text , or Some mothers are expert at tuning out the children's whining and quarreling . [1920s] For an antonym, see tune in .

Related Words

• avoid 
• discount 
• fail 
• forget 
• neglect 
• overlook 
• reject 
• scorn