derelict

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derelict

n. something or someone who is abandoned, such as a ship left to drift at sea or a homeless person ignored by family and society.

(See: abandon, dereliction)

derelict

(Abandoned), adjective adrift, avoided, cast aside, cast off, castaway, deserted, desolate, discarded, dispensed with, excluded, forgotten, forlorn, friendless, given up, helpless, homeless, ignored, isolated, jettisoned, left, lonely, lonesome, neglected, on the fringe of society, outcast, rejected, relinquished, scorned, scrapped, set adrift, shunned, solitary, thrown overboard, uncared for, unclaimed, unfortunate, unowned, unpossessed, unwanted, wretched, written off
Associated concepts: derelict property

derelict

(Negligent), adjective careless, delinquent, disregardful, dutiless, failing in duty, faithless, faulty, improvident, inattentive, inconsiderate, indifferent, lax, neglectful, neglecting, regardless, remiss, slack, uncircumspect, unconcerned, unfaithful, unheedful, uninterested, unmindful, unobservant, unwatchful

derelict

noun displaced person, drifter, exile, ne'er-do-well, outcast, pariah, scamp, tramper, wanderer, wastrel

DERELICT, common law. This term is applied in the common law in a different sense from what it bears in the civil law. In the former it is applied to lands left by the sea.
2. When so left by degrees the derelict land belongs to the owner of the soil adjoining but when the sea retires suddenly, it belongs to the government. 2 Bl. Com. 262 1 Bro. Civ. Law, 239; 1 Sumn. 328, 490 1 Gallis. 138; Bee, R. 62, 178, 260; Ware, R. 332.

References in classic literature ?

I shall send, in time for your next issue, further details of the derelict ship which found her way so miraculously into harbour in the storm.

View in context

The sailors heard the shots with certain conviction that they announced the coming of their employer, and as they had no relish for the plan that would consign them to the deck of a drifting derelict, they whispered together a hurried plan to overcome the young woman and hail Rokoff and their companions to their rescue.

View in context

It was evidently the derelict remains of some vast structure, to what end built I could not determine.

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As they steamed nearer to the derelict they were surprised to note that it was the same vessel that had run from them a few weeks earlier.

View in context

For all the duration of the storm she rode, a helpless derelict, upon those storm-tossed waves of wind.