Sample sentences for DERELICT - verbalworkout.com

2 meanings

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1 —as in:
derelict in her duty

Definition

failing to fulfill one's responsibilities — especially through lack of effort

They are derelict in not addressing this problem sooner.

Other Uses (with this meaning)

...he has to atone for past dereliction...
Alexandre Dumas -- The Count of Monte Cristo

(editor's note: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.)

It is a gross dereliction of my duty.
Robert Louis Stevenson -- Treasure Island

It is a gross dereliction of my duty.
Robert Louis Stevenson -- Treasure Island

She felt that she couldn't leave her job in the middle of the Reston crisis, that it would be a dereliction of her post.
Richard Preston -- The Hot Zone

I'm afraid that soon after my meeting with Larry, I was guilty of a grave dereliction.
William Styron -- Sophie's Choice

Incredibly, he will never be punished for this gross dereliction of duty.
Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard -- Killing Lincoln

"Oh, Roberta, darling," he said instantly and tenderly, putting his arms around her, genuinely moved by his own dereliction.
Theodore Dreiser -- An American Tragedy

Red Men who failed to report for bedside duty with their stricken brother were fineda dollar for dereliction.
Russell Baker -- Growing Up

The dereliction of duty was too terrible for words.
T. H. White -- The Once and Future King

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

2 —as in:
derelict ship

Definition

in terrible condition and/or abandoned

The report indicated that at that time Detroit had over 70,000 derelict buildings that should be torn down.

derelict = in terrible condition and/or abandoned

Other Uses (with this meaning)

We want to put those derelict buildings to better use.

derelict = run-down and/or abandoned

The fact that a coastguard was the first on board may save some complications later on, in the Admiralty Court, for coastguards cannot claim the salvage which is the right of the first civilian entering on a derelict.
Bram Stoker -- Dracula

derelict = abandoned ship

A vintage International Harvester from the 1940s, the derelict vehicle is located twenty-five miles west of Healy as the raven flies, rusting incongruously in the fireweed beside the Stampede Trail, just beyond the boundary of Denali National Park.
Jon Krakauer -- Into the Wild

derelict = in terrible condition (and abandoned)

They walked out the long spit of tidal mud where a small boat lay half buried and stood there looking at it. It was altogether derelict.
Cormac McCarthy -- The Road

derelict = in terrible condition (and abandoned)

Rubbish barrels; a derelict car, without wheels, sunk in the ground; boarded-up windows.
Robert Cormier -- I Am the Cheese

derelict = in terrible condition and/or abandoned

Nearby a white heron posed regally on one leg, in the same tree where the boys had hung their shoes before swimming to the derelict boat.
Carl Hiassen -- Hoot

derelict = in terrible condition and/or abandoned

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.
Bram Stoker -- Dracula

derelict = abandoned

We should never have come to this stinking derelict place.
David Almond -- Skellig

derelict = in terrible condition

There were derelicts and down-and-outs and dreamers.
David Almond -- Clay

derelicts = people in terrible condition (unable to support themselves and abandoned by society)

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

Less commonly:

More rarely (and typically in older literature), derelict can refer to a person who is unable to support himself and is abandoned by society.

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