# derelict

Pronunciation: say "DER-uh-likt" US /ˈdɛɹəˌlɪk(t)/, UK /ˈdɛr.ə.lɪkt/

## Adjective

1. Abandoned or neglected by its owner, and often in poor condition as a result: used especially of buildings, land, ships, or spacecraft.
   - Simple: Left by its owner and not cared for, often in bad condition.
   - _Weeds had pushed up through the floor of the derelict warehouse._
   - _Much of the waterfront was derelict until developers moved in a decade ago._
2. Careless or negligent in carrying out a duty. *(US)*
   - Simple: Not doing the job or duty that you are supposed to do.
   - _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._

## Noun

3. A disparaging word for a homeless or jobless person, or for someone seen as neglecting their hygiene and personal affairs.
   - Simple: An unkind word for a person with no home or job, or who does not take care of themselves.
   - _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._
4. Property abandoned by its owner, especially a ship or other vessel abandoned at sea with no hope of recovery.
   - Simple: Something left behind by its owner, especially a ship left floating at sea.
   - _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._

## Noun

5. A person who has been abandoned or forsaken by others. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A person who has been left alone, with no one to care for them.

## Verb

6. To desert someone or something, or to cast them aside. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To leave someone or something and give them up completely.
7. To neglect a duty. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To not do a duty that you should do.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A person who neglects a duty they are responsible for.
- (adjective) Adrift and lost, with nothing to guide or steady one.

## 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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/derelict (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).