different between derelict vs demure

English

Etymology

Latin derelictus, perfect passive participle of d?relinqu? (“to forsake, abandon”) from d?- + relinqu? (“to abandon, relinquish, leave (behind)”), from r?- + linqu? (“to leave, quit, forsake, depart from”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d???l?kt/

Adjective

derelict (comparative more derelict, superlative most derelict)

1. Abandoned, forsaken; given up by the natural owner or guardian; (of a ship) abandoned at sea, dilapidated, neglected; (of a spacecraft) abandoned in outer space.

   There was a derelict ship on the island.

   • 1649, Jeremy Taylor, The History of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ

     The affections which these exposed or derelict children bear to their mothers, have no grounds of nature or assiduity but civility and opinion.
2. Negligent in performing a duty.
3. Lost; adrift; hence, wanting; careless; neglectful; unfaithful.
   • 1774, Edmund Burke, A Speech on American Taxation

     They easily prevailed, so as to seize upon the vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his friends; and instantly they turned the vessel wholly out of the course of his policy.

   • 1859, John Buchanan, Third State of the Union Address

     A government which is either unable or unwilling to redress such wrongs is derelict to its highest duties.

Synonyms

• (abandoned): abandoned

Translations

Noun

derelict (plural derelicts)

1. Property abandoned by its former owner, especially a ship abandoned at sea.
2. (dated) An abandoned or forsaken person; an outcast.
   • 1911 Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax” (Norton 2005, p.1364):

     A rather pathetic figure, the Lady Frances, a beautiful woman, still in fresh middle age, and yet, by a strange chance, the last derelict of what only twenty years ago was a goodly fleet.

3. A homeless and/or jobless person; a person who is (perceived as) negligent in their personal affairs and hygiene. (This sense is a modern development of the preceding sense.)
   • 2002, in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence, The Boy in the Bush, edited by Paul Eggert, page 22:

     If they're lazy derelicts and ne'er-do-wells she'll eat 'em up. But she's waiting for real men — British to the bone —

Translations

See also

• flotsam
• jetsam
• lagan
• salvage

Anagrams

• relicted, reticled

English

Etymology

From Middle English demure, demwre, of uncertain formation, but probably from Old French meur (Modern French mûr) from Latin maturus. The "de-" is "of", as in "of maturity".

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??mj??(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /d??mj??/

Distinguish from pronunciation of demur

• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Adjective

demure (comparative demurer, superlative demurest)

1. (usually of women) Quiet, modest, reserved, sober, or serious.

   She is a demure young lady.

   • 1881, William Black, The Beautiful Wretch

     Nan was very much delighted in her demure way, and that delight showed itself in her face and in her clear bright eyes.
2. Affectedly modest, decorous, or serious; making a show of gravity.
   • c. 1824, Mary Russell Mitford, Walks in the Country

     Miss Lizzy, I have no doubt, would be as demure and coquettish, as if ten winters more had gone over her head.

Derived terms

• as demure as a whore at a christening
• demurely
• demureness

Translations

Verb

demure (third-person singular simple present demures, present participle demuring, simple past and past participle demured)

1. (obsolete) To look demurely.
   • 1623, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (act 4, scene 16, line 30)

     Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes […] shall acquire no Honour Demuring upon me.