jQuery validation & ignore field

It works fine to me as described at the documentation http://jqueryvalidation.org/validate

$("#myform").validate({
   ignore: ".ignore"
});

And, for multiple field use:

$("#myform").validate({
   ignore: ".ignore, .another_class"
});

For anyone who is trying this alongside jquery.validate.unobtrusive, you may find it's ignoring all options passed into $("#myform").validate() and you'll have to set them on the object instead:

$('#myform').validate().settings.ignore = ".date";
$('#myform').valid();

The Unobtrusive plugin calls validate() when the document loads, which sets the options to defaults. A validator will then be created and cached, and any further calls to validate() will ignore new options and return the cached validator.