delinquent
adjectivenounattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//dɪˈlɪŋkwənt//
Late or failing to pay a debt or other financial obligation, like a mortgage or loan.
adjective
- 1
Late or failing to pay a debt or other financial obligation, like a mortgage or loan.
Fred is delinquent in making his car payment.
- 2
Of a payment or other financial obligation: late or otherwise unfulfilled.
The company made a new effort to collect delinquent payments.
The station's financial difficulties came to a head last week when the Internal Revenue Service had its bank accounts frozen as a result of delinquent taxes.
- 3
Failing in or neglectful of a duty or obligation; guilty of a misdeed or offense
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French délinquant, ultimately from Latin delinquens, present participle of delinquo.
noun
- 1
One who disobeys or breaks rules or laws, or who acts against another's wishes.
She had the consolation of knowing that any offence given to her dignity could be avenged on the delinquent who caused it, an act of justice which could not fail to be consolatory, since every one of her daughters had at times stood in stead of "guid King James's whipping-boy," when circumstances arose to disturb the equanimity of Lady Anne's imperious and irascible temper.
- 2
A person who has not paid their debts.
- 3
historicalA royalist in the First English Civil War (1642-1646).
Forms
- plural
- delinquents
- comparative
- more delinquent
- superlative
- most delinquent
delinquent · Late or failing to pay a debt or other financial obligation, like a mortgage or loan.
delirious · Being in the state of delirium.deliver · To set free from restraint or danger.delivered · That has been, or will be, delivered in a specific manner.