Derelict

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈdÉ›rÉ™lɪkt/

Origin

Latin derelictus perfect participle of dērelinquō ("I forsake, I abandon") from dē- + relinquō ("I forsake, I leave").

Full definition of derelict

Adjective

1. Abandoned, forsake; given up or forsaken by the natural owner or guardian; (of a ship) abandoned at sea, dilapidated, neglected; (of a spacecraft) abandoned in outer space.There was a derelict ship on the island.
• Jeremy TaylorThe affections which these exposed or derelict children bear to their mothers, have no grounds of nature or assiduity but civility and opinion.
• 2011, When and where did NASA's derelict satellite go down?
2. Negligent in performing a duty.
3. Lost; adrift; hence, wanting; careless; neglectful; unfaithful.
• BurkeThey easily prevailed, so as to seize upon the vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his friends; and instantly they turned the vessel wholly out of the course of his policy.
• John BuchananA government which is either unable or unwilling to redress such wrongs is derelict to its highest duties.

Synonyms

• (abandoned) abandoned

Noun

1. Property abandoned by its former owner, especially a ship abandoned at sea.
• 1907, Robert W. Service, Chapter , Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
  It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May".
  And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
  Then "Here", said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."
2. (dated) An abandoned or forsaken person; an outcast.
• 1911 Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax” (Norton 2005, p.1364):A rather pathetic figure, the Lady Frances, a beautiful woman, still in fresh middle age, and yet, by a strange chance, the last derelict of what only twenty years ago was a goodly fleet.
3. A homeless and/or jobless person; a person who is (perceived as) negligent in their personal affairs and hygiene. This sense is a modern development of the preceding sense.
• 1988, Jonathan D. Spence, The Question of Hu:As they hunt, the Archers and Duval find many derelicts and ne'er-do-wells in many parts of Paris.
• 2002, in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence, The Boy in the Bush, edited by Paul Eggert, page 22:If they're lazy derelicts and ne'er-do-wells she'll eat 'em up. But she's waiting for real men — British to the bone —
• 2004, Katherine V. W. Stone, From Widgets to Digits: Employment Regulation, page 280:We see the distinction at work when victims of natural disasters and terrorist attacks are treated more generously than derelicts and drug addicts.