Meaning of Derelict | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Property abandoned by its former guardian or owner; (countable) an item of such property.
   uncountable
2. 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.
   specifically, uncountable
3. An abandoned or forsaken person; an outcast, a waif.
   countable, dated
4. A homeless or jobless person; a vagrant; also, a person who is (perceived as) negligent in their hygiene and personal affairs.
   broadly, countable, derogatory
5. A person who is negligent in performing a duty.
   US, countable

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“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."”

“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?”

“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.”

“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.”

“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— […]”

“As they hunt, the Archers and Duval find many derelicts and ne'er-do-wells in many parts of Paris.”

“[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.”

CEFR level