上の空

うわのそら
inattention
absent-mindedness

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うわのそら【上の空】

●上の空だ be inattentive; be absentminded; be halfhearted; have an abstracted [a vacant] air; one's mind is elsewhere.

●上の空で halfheartedly; absentmindedly; inattentively; vacantly; with an abstracted [a vacant] air; carelessly; mechanically

・彼女は本を読んでいたので上の空で返事をした. She was reading a book and answered distractedly.

・上の空で聞く listen to sb absently [absentmindedly, inattentively]; pay little [no] attention to 《what sb says》

・上の空で聞いているからわからないのだ. You don't understand because you haven't been paying attention to what I've been saying.

●今の彼には何を聞いても上の空だよ. Right now his mind is elsewhere and it would be useless to ask him anything.