How do you use the word "derelict" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "derelict" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "derelict": Sami is a derelict. In most Algerian apartment buildings, elevators are derelict and haven't worked for a long time.

Derelict Meaning

/ˈdɛr.ə.lɪkt/

Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

adjGiven up by the guardian or owner; abandoned, forsaken.

adjGiven up by the guardian or owner; abandoned, forsaken., Of a ship: abandoned at sea; of a spacecraft: abandoned in outer space.

Sentence Examples

Sami is a derelict.

In most Algerian apartment buildings, elevators are derelict and haven't worked for a long time.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

worn abandoned uninhabited

Antonyms:

new

CEFR Practice Quiz

The ____ building had broken windows and overgrown weeds out front.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

Sami is a ____.

Word Origin & History

The adjective and verb are a learned borrowing from Latin dērelictus (“(completely) abandoned, deserted, forsaken; discarded”), the perfect passive participle of dērelinquō (“to abandon, desert, forsake; to discard”), from dē- (prefix meaning ‘away from; completely, thoroughly’) + relinquō (“to abandon, desert, forsake, leave (behind); to depart (from); to give up, relinquish”) (from Proto-Italic *wrelinkʷō, from *wre (“again”) (whence Latin rē- (prefix meaning ‘again’)) + *linkʷō (“to leave”) (whence linquō (“to forsake; depart from, leave, quit”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leykʷ- (“to leave”))). Doublet of relict, relic, and relinquish. The noun is derived from the adjective.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"[T]heſe affections, vvhich theſe expoſed or derelict children bear to their Mothers, have no grounds of nature or aſſiduity but civility and opinion; […]" — 1649, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Discourse I. Of Nursing Children in Imitation of the Blessed Virgin-Mother.”, in The Great Exemplar of Sanctity and Holy Life According to the Christian Institution. […], London: […] R. N. for Francis Ash, […], →OCLC, 3rd part, paragraph 2, page 37:

"We may be pardoned our nostalgia, those of us who can remember the old days, the days before the grouping and before standardisation, when we see, as today we see so often, the derelict and abandoned buildings of what were once railway stations, for the life which they used to enjoy we lived with them. There they stand, today, as the dusk deepens about them, lampless, cold and deserted." — 1953 April, Henry Maxwell, “Abandoned Railway Stations”, in Railway Magazine, page 270:

"An imaginative illustration showing how a space tow-boat (lower left), operating with a plasma electric rocket motor, takes a derelict satellite out of the traffic lanes in deep space." — 1962, Will Eisner, “Rocket Motors”, in Charles Kramer, editor, America’s Space Vehicles: A Pictorial Review, New York, N.Y.: Sterling Publishing Co., →OCLC, image caption, page 56:

"When and where did NASA's derelict satellite go down? [title]" — 2011 September 24, Adrian West, “When and Where did NASA’s Derelict Satellite Go Down?”, in Gizmodo, archived from the original on 09 Aug 2022:

"There is much sad evidence, too, of the spoliation and dereliction of vanished industry: tips, slag-heaps and derelict colliery-screens among which the ubiquitous, nomad mountain sheep graze unconcernedly." — 1955 July, D. S. Barrie, “Railways of the Bridgend District”, in Railway Magazine, page 449:

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