1. A deliberate or conscious neglect of someone or something: The security guard at the bank committed a dereliction of his duty when he was not available to stop the robber because the officer was down in the locker room eating a sandwich.
2. An act of not doing what a person or people are responsible for: A dereliction of military duty that soldiers were obligated to perform was the reason for their punishment.
3. Etymology: from the 1590s, "abandonment"; formerly with an extended sense than in modern use; that is, of the sea withdrawing from the land; from Latin derelictionem, derelictio, from the stem of derelinquere, "to forsake wholly, to abandon"; from de- "entirely" + relinquere, "to leave behind". © ALL rights are reserved.

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