Definition of "paying attention" []

• Taking heed; giving close and thoughtful attention (adjective)
• Paying particular notice (as to children or helpless people) (noun)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "Mr. Schrupe had said he would be testing us tomorrow, and I had a bad habit of not paying attention in his class when he talked."
• "But although we intuitively know that paying attention is the ultimate parenting tool, we underutilize it."
• "Before his death in 2004 Pete Knight extrapolated: I think it was a lax condition, not doing something wrong, but not paying attention to what was going on."