DERELICT

bedraggled, broken-down, derelict, dilapidated, ramshackle, tatterdemalion, tumble-down

(adjective) in deplorable condition; “a street of bedraggled tenements”; “a broken-down fence”; “a ramshackle old pier”; “a tumble-down shack”

derelict, delinquent, neglectful, remiss

(adjective) failing in what duty requires; “derelict (or delinquent) in his duty”; “neglectful of his duties”; “remiss of you not to pay your bills”

abandoned, derelict, deserted

(adjective) forsaken by owner or inhabitants; “weed-grown yard of an abandoned farmhouse”

creaky, decrepit, derelict, flea-bitten, run-down, woebegone

(adjective) worn and broken down by hard use; “a creaky shack”; “a decrepit bus...its seats held together with friction tape”; “a flea-bitten sofa”; “a run-down neighborhood”; “a woebegone old shack”

derelict

(noun) a person without a home, job, or property

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Adjective

derelict (comparative more derelict, superlative most derelict)

Abandoned, forsaken; given up by the natural owner or guardian; (of a ship) abandoned at sea, dilapidated, neglected; (of a spacecraft) abandoned in outer space.

Negligent in performing a duty.

Lost; adrift; hence, wanting; careless; neglectful; unfaithful.

Synonyms

• (abandoned): abandoned

Noun

derelict (plural derelicts)

Property abandoned by its former owner, especially a ship abandoned at sea.

(dated) An abandoned or forsaken person; an outcast.

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.)

Anagrams

• relicted, reticled

Source: Wiktionary


Der"e*lict, a. Etym: [L. derelictus, p. p. of derelinquere to forsake wholly, to abandon; de- + relinquere to leave. See Relinquish.]

1. Given up or forsaken by the natural owner or guardian; left and abandoned; as, derelict lands. The affections which these exposed or derelict children bear to their mothers, have no grounds of nature or assiduity but civility and opinion. Jer. Taylor.

2. Lost; adrift; hence, wanting; careless; neglectful; unfaithful. They easily prevailed, so as to seize upon the vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his [Chatham's] friends; and instantly they turned the vessel wholly out of the course of his policy. Burke. A government which is either unable or unwilling to redress such wrongs is derelict to its highest duties. J. Buchanan.

Der"e*lict, n. (Law) (a) A thing voluntary abandoned or willfully cast away by its proper owner, especially a ship abandoned at sea. (b) A tract of land left dry by the sea, and fit for cultivation or use.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

11 February 2025

ALEWIFE

(noun) shad-like food fish that runs rivers to spawn; often salted or smoked; sometimes placed in genus Pomolobus


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Coffee Trivia

The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.

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