Definition of "derelict"

The affections which these exposed or derelict children bear to their mothers, have no grounds of nature or assiduity but civility and opinion.

1649, Jeremy Taylor, The History of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ

2011, “When and where did NASA's derelict satellite go down?”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎

They easily prevailed, so as to seize upon the vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his friends; and instantly they turned the vessel wholly out of the course of his policy.

1774 April 19, Edmund Burke, Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq. on American Taxation, April 19, 1774, 2nd edition, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], published 1775

A government which is either unable or unwilling to redress such wrongs is derelict to its highest duties.

1859, John Buchanan, Third State of the Union Address

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."

1907, Robert W. Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, in The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses

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.

1911, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, Norton, published 2005, page 1364

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

1988, Jonathan D. Spence, The Question of Hu

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 —

2002, “The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence”, in Paul Eggert, editor, The Boy in the Bush, page 22

We see the distinction at work when victims of natural disasters and terrorist attacks are treated more generously than derelicts and drug addicts.

2004, Katherine V. W. Stone, From Widgets to Digits: Employment Regulation, page 280