Dereliction

/dɛɹ.ɪˈlɪk.ʃən/ · noun

Meaning

Willful neglect of one's duty..

Definitions by Sense

1. Willful neglect of one's duty.
2. The act of abandoning something, or the state of being abandoned.
3. Land gained from the water by a change of water-line.

Example Sentences

The new soldier did not clean his cabin and was scolded for dereliction and disobedience.

What he did was a terrible dereliction of duty.

[…] there on the table were the uncleared remains of Thursday's lunch, plain evidence of someone's dereliction.

And his final act—leaving the Watch to accompany Tormund and the Wildlings back into the woods North of the wall—no longer seems like a dereliction of duty. It’s the recovery of duty, found by a man who feels he betrayed his queen, who thinks there’s no longer a place for him in these lands.

To this we must contend with prayer , with actual dereliction and seposition of all our other affairs

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.

After years of unsympathetic commercial use and dereliction, nothing of note remained inside, which accordingly has been reconfigured with modern amenities such as underfloor heating.

Synonyms for dereliction

Antonyms for dereliction

Related Words

Word Forms

• derelictions

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

Practice and Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions