1
as in abandonment
the act of abandoning the dereliction by the owners of a once flourishing orchard

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2
3
as in neglect
the nonperformance of an assigned or expected action both sentries were to be court-martialed for dereliction of duty

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of dereliction Ernst charged public employees with widespread absenteeism and dereliction of duty. Charlie Tyson, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2025 Amid this strangulation, Californication, and dereliction, Governor Moore loudly proclaims that the solution is growth. John Teichert, Baltimore Sun, 3 Mar. 2025 Lawmakers diagnosed that the principal government dereliction had been the failure to ensure that intelligence was shared across agencies. Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 1 Mar. 2025 Watching a patient suffer feels like a dereliction of duty to many health care workers. Daniel T. Kim, The Conversation, 4 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for dereliction
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dereliction
Noun
  • Volunteers advocate for children who have been removed from their home from either abuse, abandonment or neglect.
    Joe Rassel, The Orlando Sentinel, 16 July 2025
  • But the Puerto Rican legend’s abandonment of her machine-gun reputation proved fatal in the final rounds.
    Mark Puleo, New York Times, 12 July 2025
Noun
  • The lawsuit seeks damages and brings claims of battery, negligence and false imprisonment.
    Nathan Pilling July 19, Kansas City Star, 19 July 2025
  • Mitchell said that in civil cases where civil negligence is raised, a lawyer would have to show that someone's carelessness caused harm to another person, such as running a red light and hitting someone.
    Elena Santa Cruz, AZCentral.com, 18 July 2025
Noun
  • Police always investigate a drowning to rule out cases of abuse or extreme neglect, but an absent-minded parent accidentally forgetting to lock the pool gate or door to the backyard was unlikely to land them behind bars, Hoskin said.
    Elena Santa Cruz, AZCentral.com, 12 July 2025
  • Not only in the United States, where academic medical centers (AMCs) are strained by politics, profit models and bureaucracy—but also in countries like Mexico, where health systems are crumbling under neglect and underfunding.
    Nicholas Creel, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 July 2025
Noun
  • Angela, a choir director and family history consultant for her local church, was first hospitalized on March 6 complaining of dizziness and weakness.
    Christine Pelisek, People.com, 15 July 2025
  • The weakness could be due to the new 30% tariffs that President Donald Trump threatened against the European Union and Mexico over the weekend.
    Jeff Marks, CNBC, 14 July 2025
Noun
  • Afterward, a mock court-martial was held, complete with the sentencing and execution of a private accused of desertion.
    Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 5 Apr. 2025
  • During the Civil War, firing squads were common for executing soldiers for desertion; in some cases, they would be blindfolded and tied to stakes before being shot.
    Erik Ortiz, NBC News, 2 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Plated with vegan sour cream or traditional Icelandic skyr and a pile of pickled veggies, their rotating flavors include options like daal, chile sin carne and smoked tofu (3,200 ISK for 10).
    New York Times, New York Times, 24 July 2025
  • Promoting something that God defines as sin is in itself sin.
    EW.com, EW.com, 18 July 2025
Noun
  • State officials initially tried to put fault on the NWS early on in the flood recovery efforts, claiming the agency did not properly convey the storm's threat, but experts have since said the warnings issued were as timely and accurate as could have been expected.
    Mary Whitfill Roeloffs, Forbes.com, 14 July 2025
  • The two men immediately began arguing over who was at fault, cops said.
    Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 12 July 2025
Noun
  • Here’s a breakdown of those two failings and their ramifications.
    Eric Siegel, Forbes.com, 14 July 2025
  • At their best, critics are in touch with their own personal strengths and failings, and work as interpreters and contextualizers for the rest of us.
    Charlotte Runcie July 10, Literary Hub, 10 July 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Dereliction.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dereliction. Accessed 30 Jul. 2025.

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