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''derelict'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260609164652-00-⌔

derelict - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

derelict (comparative more derelict, superlative most derelict)

  • Given up by the guardian or owner; abandoned, forsaken.
    • ✤ Synonyms: dropped, forlorn; see also Thesaurus: abandoned
    • ✤ [T]heſe affections, vvhich theſe expoſed or derelict children bear to their Mothers, have no grounds of nature or aſſiduity but civility and opinion; […]1
    • ✤ We may be pardoned our nostalgia, those of us who can remember the old days, the days before the grouping and before standardisation, when we see, as today we see so often, the derelict and abandoned buildings of what were once railway stations, for the life which they used to enjoy we lived with them. There they stand, today, as the dusk deepens about them, lampless, cold and deserted.2
    • (specifically) Of a ship: abandoned at sea; of a spacecraft: abandoned in outer space.
      • ✤ There was a derelict ship on the island.
      • ✤ An imaginative illustration showing how a space tow-boat (lower left), operating with a plasma electric rocket motor, takes a derelict satellite out of the traffic lanes in deep space.3
      • ✤ When and where did NASA’s derelict satellite go down? [title]4
  • (by extension) Of property: in a poor state due to abandonment or neglect; dilapidated, neglected.
    • ✤ Synonyms: crumbling, rundown; see also Thesaurus: ramshackle
    • ✤ There is much sad evidence, too, of the spoliation and dereliction of vanished industry: tips, slag-heaps and derelict colliery-screens among which the ubiquitous, nomad mountain sheep graze unconcernedly.5
  • (figurative) Adrift, lost.
    • ✤ Synonym: anchorless
    • ✤ Deprived of his guiding influence, they vvere vvhirled about, the ſport of every guſt, and eaſily driven into any port; and as thoſe vvho joined vvith them in manning the veſſel vvere the moſt directly oppoſite to his opinions, meaſures, and character, and far the moſt artful and moſt povverful of the ſet, they eaſily prevailed, ſo as to ſeize upon the vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his friends; and inſtantly they turned the veſſel vvholly out of the courſe of his policy.6
  • (chiefly US) Negligent in performing a duty; careless.
    • ✤ Synonyms: neglectful, unfaithful; see also Thesaurus: careless
    • ✤ The wrongs which we have suffered from Mexico are before the world, and must deeply impress every American citizen. A Government which is either unable or unwilling to redress such wrongs is derelict to its highest duties.7

Noun

derelict (countable and uncountable, plural derelicts)

  • (uncountable) Property abandoned by its former guardian or owner; (countable) an item of such property.
    • ✤ But often it must have happened in a course of centuries, that plague, small-pox, cholera, the sweating-sickness, or other scourges of universal Europe and Asia, would absolutely depopulate a region no larger than an island; […] In such cases, mere strangers would oftentimes enter upon the lands as a derelict.8
    • (uncountable, specifically, law) Property abandoned at sea with no hope of recovery and no expectation of being returned to its owner; (countable) an item of such property, especially a ship.
      • ✤ Coordinate terms: flotsam, jetsam, lagan, salvage
      • ✤ 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.”9
  • (countable, dated) An abandoned or forsaken person; an outcast, a waif.
    • ✤ Hyponym: foundling
    • ✤ And, think you, will the unkind ones hesitate/To try conclusions with my helplessness,—/To pounce on, misuse me, your derelict,/Helped by advantage that bereavement lends/Folks, who, while yet you lived, played tricks like these?10
    • ✤ 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.11
  • (countable, by extension, derogatory) A homeless or jobless person; a vagrant; also, a person who is (perceived as) negligent in their hygiene and personal affairs.
    • ✤ Synonyms: see Thesaurus: vagabond
    • ✤ A very gratifying development of the work in this office has been the gradual improvement in the class and type of applicants. […] This improvement is due, in part to the arrangement with the Federal Employment office whereby the latter handles the common labor, in which group there is always a large percentage of transients, derelicts and loafers, hoboes and ne’er-do-wells.12
    • ✤ Only she must have men —understand? 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— […]13
    • ✤ As they hunt, the Archers and Duval find many derelicts and ne’er-do-wells in many parts of Paris.14
    • ✤ [P]ublic charity has been permeated with judgments about the moral character of the poor. […] We see the distinction at work when victims of natural disasters and terrorist attacks are treated more generously than derelicts and drug addicts.15
  • (countable, chiefly US) A person who is negligent in performing a duty.
    • ✤ Synonym: shirker

Verb

derelict (third-person singular simple present derelicts, present participle derelicting, simple past and past participle derelicted) (obsolete, rare)

  • (transitive) To abandon or forsake (someone or something).
    • ✤ [H]e finds a poor young fellow, a famished, sick young man, derelicted of his master, and left for dead in the march, and by the means and conduct of this wretch, David recovers the enemy, recovers the spoil, recovers his honour, and the love of his people.16
    • ✤ [F]or the public, for the redemption of the whole world, God hath (shall we say, pretermitted?) derelicted, forsaken, abandoned, his own, and only Son.17
    • ✤ Goods derelicted*, that is, deſerted by the Ovvners, and caſt into the Sea, vvhich happens upon various occaſions, as coming from infected Tovvns or places, and for many other reſpects, vvill be VVreck if caſt on ſhoar aftervvards, tho’never purpoſed for Merchandiſe: (But Goods caſt over-board to lighten a Ship, are not by [Henry de] Bracton, nor from him in Sir H. Conſtable’s Caſe, eſteemed *Goods derelicted ; vvhich is a Queſtion not thoroughly examined.)18
    • ✤ The principle of the lavv of nations is, that vvhere the protection and povver are, there is the ſubjection. If theſe perſons had abſolutely derelicted all inhabitancy in the colonies and territories of the King of France, and it appeared that there vvas neither an intention, nor a poſſibility of their returning thither again, the analogy of the caſe of the exiled Americans might have been ſet up as better argument in their favour, though even that caſe vvould not be exactly parallel.19
    • ✤ Had I not so marv’lously done/My works, ye had not had such heinous sin,/Of so damning, derelicting nature;/But now ye have no excuse, no cover.20
    • ✤ Against the accredited axioms of experience and practice, it would be unwise as well as useless to content; but without derelicting upon a broad scale, there are certain deviations from common and received modes of conduct and notion, perfectly admissible with the highest integrity of principle; […]21
    • ✤ [T]here is a long and established trajectory in Ireland of derelicting and then demolishing difficult sites […] because they are unnerving and uncomfortable presences.22
  • (intransitive) To neglect a duty.
    • ✤ [I]t has occurred to me, that where so momentous a point as the liberty of the subject is concerned, I should be derelicting from my duty, did I not avail myself of the assistance of His Majesty’s law officer, where a doubt existed in my mind.23
    • ✤ I don’t remember vowing to be calmly cheerful under the infliction of the Pottingers and others of that ilk; but I must have done it, or Arthur wouldn’t look as if I was so flagrantly derelicting from my duty.24

Etymology

🖼️ ➺

The adjective25 and verb26 are a learned borrowing from Latin dērelictus (“(completely) abandoned, deserted, forsaken; discarded”), the perfect passive participle of dērelinquō (“to abandon, desert, forsake; to discard”), from dē- (prefix meaning ‘away from; completely, thoroughly’) + relinquō (“to abandon, desert, forsake, leave (behind); to depart (from); to give up, relinquish”) (from Proto-Italic ﹡wrelinkʷō, from ﹡wre (“again”) (whence Latin rē- (prefix meaning ‘again’)) + ﹡linkʷō (“to leave”) (whence linquō (“to forsake; depart from, leave, quit”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ﹡leykʷ- (“to leave”))). Doublet of relict, relic, and relinquish.

The noun is derived from the adjective.25

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈdɛr.ə.lɪkt/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈdɛɹəˌlɪk(t)/
  • Hyphenation: de‧re‧lict

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1649, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Discourse I. Of Nursing Children in Imitation of the Blessed Virgin-Mother.”, in The Great Exemplar of Sanctity and Holy Life According to the Christian Institution. […], London: […] R. N. for Francis Ash, […], →OCLC, 3rd part, paragraph 2, page 37: ↩

  2. 1953 April, Henry Maxwell, “Abandoned Railway Stations”, in Railway Magazine, page 270: ↩

  3. 1962, Will Eisner, “Rocket Motors”, in Charles Kramer, editor, America’s Space Vehicles: A Pictorial Review, New York, N.Y.: Sterling Publishing Co., →OCLC, image caption, page 56: ↩

  4. 2011 September 24, Adrian West, “When and Where did NASA’s Derelict Satellite Go Down?”, in Gizmodo ‎, archived from the original on 9 August 2022: ↩

  5. 1955 July, D. S. Barrie, “Railways of the Bridgend District”, in Railway Magazine, page 449: ↩

  6. 1774 April 19, Edmund Burke, Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq. on American Taxation, April 19, 1774, 2nd edition, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], published 1775, →OCLC, page 79: ↩

  7. 1859 December 19 (date delivered), John Buchanan, “The President’s Message [Third State of the Union Address]”, in The Albion, volume 37, number 53, New York, N.Y.: W. Young & Co., published 31 December 1859, →OCLC, page 630, column 1: ↩

  8. 1860, Thomas De Quincey, “Modern Greece”, in Letters to a Young Man whose Education has been Neglected; and Other Papers (De Quincey’s Works; XIV), London: James Hogg & Sons, →OCLC, page 320: ↩

  9. 1907, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, in Songs of a Sourdough, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC, stanza 10, page 38: ↩

  10. 1873 January 23, Robert Browning, “Part IV”, in Red Cotton Night-Cap Country: Or Turf and Towers, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 257–258: ↩

  11. 1911 December, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax”, in His Last Bow: A Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published October 1917, →OCLC, page 208: ↩

  12. 1918, V. A. Zimmer, “Part VII: Report of Bureau of Employment [Report of the Superintendent of the Buffalo Office]”, in Annual Report of the Industrial Commission for the Twelve Months Ended June 30, 1917 […], Albany, N.Y.: State Department of Labor, →OCLC, page 249: ↩

  13. 1924, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, M[ary] L[ouise] Skinner, “Jack Arrives in Australia”, in The Boy in the Bush, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Seltzer, →OCLC, section III, page 18: ↩

  14. 1988, Jonathan D[ermot] Spence, “Paris”, in The Question of Hu (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 87: ↩

  15. 2004, Katherine V[an] W[ezel] Stone, “The Working Rich and the Working Poor: Income Inequality in the Digital Era”, in From Widgets to Digits: Employment Regulation for the Changing Workplace, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 280: ↩

  16. 1630 (date delivered), John Donne, “Sermon LXXI. [At the Hague, December 19, 1619, I preached upon this Text. Since, in My Sickness at Abrey-hatch, in Essex, 1630, Revising My Short Notes of that Sermon, I Digested Them into These Two.] ”, in Henry Alford, editor, The Works of John Donne, D.D., […], volume III, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 267: ↩

  17. a. 1632 (date written), John Donne, “Sermon LXXXII. Preached at a Marriage.”, in Henry Alford, editor, The Works of John Donne, D.D., […], volume IV, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 20: ↩

  18. a. 1675 (date written), John Vaughan, “Edmund Sheppard Junior, Plaintiff; in Trespass, against George Gosnold, William Booth, William Haggard, and Henry Heringold, Defendants”, in Edward Vaughan, editor, The Reports and Arguments of that Learned Judge, Sir John Vaughan, Kt. Late Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas, Being All of Them Special Cases; […], 2nd edition, London: […] [T] he assigns of Richard and Edward Atkins […]; and are to be sold by C. Harper, […], published 1706, →OCLC, page 168: ↩

  19. 1779 January 21 (date written), “The Kronta Ancharet [et al.]”, in Decisions in the High Court of Admiralty; during the Time of Sir George Hay, and of Sir James Marriott, Late Judges of that Court, volume I (Michaelmas Term, 1776, to Hilary Term, 1779), London: […] R. Bickerstaff, […], by George Cooke, […], published 1801, →OCLC, pages 261–262: ↩

  20. 1803, John Holmes, “On the Son of God in Union with the Father and the Holy Ghost”, in Poetical Essays. […], London: […] [F] or the author; and sold by W. Baynes, […]; and W. Warr, […], →OCLC, pages 31–32: ↩

  21. 1861, Ella Catharine Houlton, Chance Thoughts on Chance Subjects, London: Judd & Glass, […], →OCLC, page 53: ↩

  22. 2022, Laura McAtackney, “Transitional Sites and ‘Material Memory’: Impermanence and Ireland’s Derelict Magdalene Laundries”, in Haidy Geismar, Ton Otto, Cameron David Warner, editors, Impermanence: Exploring Continuous Change across Cultures, London: UCL Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 230: ↩

  23. 1825 April 16 (date written), Geo[rge] Wyke, “Slaves in the Colonies. [Letter to the Hon. Richard Musgrave, Acting Advocate General. No. 6.]”, in Papers and Correspondence: […] Relating to New South Wales Magistrates; the West Indies; Liberated Africans; Colonial and Slave Population; Slaves; the Slave Trade; &c. […], volume XXVI, [London]: [Her Majesty’s Stationery Office], published 1826, page 39: ↩

  24. 1869, Annie Thomas, “The Bride at Home”, in False Colours. […], volume II, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 50–51: ↩

  25. Compare “derelict, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023; “derelict, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩ ↩2

  26. Compare “derelict, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023. ↩

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