Derelict means abandoned and falling down. A derelict building, derelict land, left derelict.
It describes property nobody is maintaining, and derelict land is a planning category with grants attached. As a noun, a derelict is an abandoned ship or, in older use and unkindly, a destitute person. Derelict in your duty is the fixed legal phrase for failing an obligation, and dereliction of duty is the charge. Note that the Latin means completely forsaken.
1adjectivederelictAbandoned and falling down.
“The derelict factory had broken windows and weeds growing through the floor.”
2adjectivefailingFailing in a duty.
“The guard was found derelict in his duty after he fell asleep on watch.”
derelict is a state of abandonment.
Latin derelictus is the participle of derelinquere, to abandon completely — de plus relinquere, to leave. Relinquish and relic come from the same leaving.
Latin
dērelinquō
English, today
derelict
Built from
Borrowed from Latin dērelinquō. The adjective and verb are a Latin dērelictus (“(completely) abandoned, deserted, forsaken; discarded”), the perfect passive participle of dērelinquō (“to abandon, desert, forsake; to discard”), from dē- + relinquō (“to abandon, desert, forsake, leave (behind); to depart (from); to give up, relinquish”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European leykʷ- (“to leave”). a doublet of relict and relic and relinquish. The noun is derived from the adjective.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA