01 a. Given up or forsaken by the natural owner or guardian; left and abandoned; as, derelict lands.
-
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.