Meaning

noun a person without a home, job, or property

noun a ship abandoned on the high seas

adjective worn and broken down by hard use

originThe 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…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0