Wiktionary
n. A state or the quality of being absent-minded (gloss: abstracted, preoccupied). (First attested in the early 18th century.)(R:SOED5: page=8)
Usage examples of "absence of mind".
His chief defect was his forgetfulness and absence of mind, which made him mismanage important business.
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: Affected absence of mind Be good, sweet man, and let who will be clever Comfort of the critical attitude Conscience weakens to the need that isn't Death is an exile that no remorse and no love can reach Death is peace and pardon Did not idealize him, but in the highest effect she realized him Does any one deserve happiness Does anything from without change us?
It was not even in my power to return distinct answers to the questions she asked from time to time, so that she could not help observing my absence of mind.
He assisted in the search, however, and may have seen the watch unconsciously, in a moment of absence of mind.
A suspended interest and a prevalent absence of mind, were perhaps observed by the spies who looked in at the wine-shop, as they looked in at every place, high and low, from the kings palace to the criminal's gaol.
The ladies of the place, jealous of the Sappho of Saint-Satur, were wont to walk on the Mall, looking down this Longchamp of the bigwigs, whom they would stop and engage in conversation--sometimes the Sous-prefet and sometimes the Public Prosecutor--and who would listen with every sign of impatience or uncivil absence of mind.
Sapsea, in a grandiloquent state of absence of mind, seems to refill his visitor's glass, which is full already.
The king, equally surprised at what I had just said, hastily turned and spoke to Chon, who told me afterwards, that the astonishment of Louis XV had been equal to that of the prince de Soubise, and that he had evinced it by the absence of mind which he had manifested in his discourse and manners.