derelict
Noun pluralderelicts
Pluralderelicts
Formsderelicts, derelicting, derelicted
- 1Abandoned or neglected by its owner, and often in poor condition as a result: used especially of buildings, land, ships, or spacecraft.
Weeds had pushed up through the floor of the derelict warehouse.
Much of the waterfront was derelict until developers moved in a decade ago.
Note
Where rundown only says a place is shabby, derelict says it has been left to fall apart, and it is a natural word for the remains of dead industry: derelict mills, stations, warehouses and colliery workings. The state itself is dereliction: D. S. Barrie wrote in 1955 of "the spoliation and dereliction of vanished industry".
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- D. S. Barrie used the quoted wording in 1955, in “Railways of the Bridgend District”, Railway Magazine, July, page 449. en.wiktionary.org
- 2Careless or negligent in carrying out a duty.
The inspectors were found derelict in their duties after the bridge collapsed.
A government that ignores rising crime is derelict in its first responsibility to its citizens.
UsageUsually derelict in a duty: derelict in their duties.
Similarnegligent, remiss, neglectful, careless
Oppositediligent, conscientious, dutiful
Note
The President's Message of December 1859 called a government unable or unwilling to redress wrongs "derelict to its highest duties".
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The President’s December 1859 message described a government unable or unwilling to redress wrongs as “derelict to its highest duties”; the message was James Buchanan’s Third Annual Message, dated December 19, 1859. millercenter.org
- 3A disparaging word for a homeless or jobless person, or for someone seen as neglecting their hygiene and personal affairs.
The novel follows a former banker who ends up a derelict, sleeping in doorways and begging for change.
Some neighbors complained that the park had become a hangout for drunks and derelicts.
UsageWhen referring to someone without a home, use homeless person for a neutral description.
Similartramp, drifter, hobo, bum
Note
Contempt is built into this sense: it judges a person's character, not only their circumstances, and it travels in scornful company. D. H. Lawrence and M. L. Skinner write of "lazy derelicts and ne'er-do-wells" in 1924, and later writing about charity sets derelicts beside drug addicts as the poor who are blamed.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- D. H. Lawrence and M. L. Skinner coauthored The Boy in the Bush, first published in 1924. en.wikipedia.org
- The quoted words occur in the novel; the fictional speaker is Mr. George. gutenberg.org
- Later writing about charity groups derelicts with drug addicts as people treated less generously than other recipients. en.wiktionary.org
- 4Property abandoned by its owner, especially a ship or other vessel abandoned at sea with no hope of recovery.
The salvage team towed the derelict, a cargo ship with no crew aboard, back to port.
Cars left on the lot for more than a year are treated as derelicts and sold at auction.
Less common meanings
- 5A person who has been abandoned or forsaken by others.
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.
1911, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax”Note
The tone here is pity rather than scorn: the person is pictured as a ship that no one comes back for. In Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" (1911), the lady is "the last derelict of what only twenty years ago was a goodly fleet". The sense is dated, and a modern reader is likelier to hear the disparaging word for a vagrant.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Arthur Conan Doyle wrote "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax". gutenberg.org
- The story was first published in 1911. en.wikipedia.org
- The quoted words describe Lady Frances Carfax; Sherlock Holmes speaks them. en.wikisource.org
- 6To desert someone or something, or to cast them aside.
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.
1803, John Holmes, “On the Son of God in Union with the Father and the Holy Ghost”[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.
a. 1632 (date written), John Donne, The Works of John DonneNote
Pulpit and court both once had work for this verb, which has since dropped out of use. John Donne piles it up with its synonyms, "derelicted, forsaken, abandoned", and old law reports speak of goods derelicted, deserted by their owners and cast into the sea, the situation the noun for abandoned property names. Used today, it would read as a deliberate archaism.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- John Donne used the verb in a sermon, in the exact sequence "derelicted, forsaken, abandoned". en.wiktionary.org
- Historical law reports use "goods derelicted" for goods deserted by their owners and cast into the sea. en.wiktionary.org
- The noun "derelict" names abandoned property, including property abandoned at sea. en.wiktionary.org
- 7To neglect a duty.
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.
1869, Annie Thomas, “The Bride at Home”Note
No object follows this verb, unlike the verb of abandoning: the duty comes after from, as in derelicting from my duty. George Wyke used it in 1825, and it turns up in Annie Thomas's False Colours as "so flagrantly derelicting from my duty", but it was rare even then. Today neglect does the job.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- The duty-neglect sense is intransitive, unlike the transitive abandonment sense. en.wiktionary.org
- The duty can follow from, and the quoted wording occurs in False Colours. en.wiktionary.org
- George Wyke used the verb in 1825. en.wiktionary.org
- Annie Thomas wrote False Colours. en.wikisource.org
- 8A person who neglects a duty they are responsible for.
- 9Adrift and lost, with nothing to guide or steady one.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Latin dērelinquō ("to abandon, desert, forsake") joined dē- ("away from, completely") with relinquō ("to leave behind, give up"), a verb ultimately rooted in Proto-Indo-European *leykʷ- ("to leave"). Its past participle dērelictus ("completely abandoned, deserted, forsaken, discarded") was borrowed into English as a learned word, giving the adjective and the verb, and the noun was formed from the adjective. Relict, relic and relinquish are doublets.