Derelict
WordNet
adjective
(1) In deplorable condition
"A street of bedraggled tenements"
"A broken-down fence"
"A ramshackle old pier"
"A tumble-down shack"
(2) Failing in what duty requires
"Derelict (or delinquent) in his duty"
"Neglectful of his duties"
"Remiss of you not to pay your bills"
(3) Forsaken by owner or keeper
"Weed-grown yard of an abandoned farmhouse"
(4) 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"
noun
(5) A ship abandoned on the high seas
(6) A person unable to support himself
WiktionaryText
Etymology
Latin derelictus past participle of derelinquere 'forsake, abandon' from de + relinquere 'leave, forsake'.
Adjective
- Abandoned, forsaken; (of ship) abandoned at sea; dilapidated, neglected.
- There was a derelict ship on the island.
- Negligent in performing a duty.
Noun
- Abandoned property; a ship abandoned at sea.
- An abandoned or forsaken person; an outcast.
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- 1911: 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. — Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax’ (Norton 2005, p.1364)
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- A negligent person.