delinquent
Americanadjective
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failing in or neglectful of a duty or obligation; guilty of a misdeed or offense.
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(of an account, tax, debt, etc.) past due; overdue.
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of or relating to delinquents or delinquency.
delinquent attitudes.
noun
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someone, esp a young person, guilty of delinquency See juvenile delinquent
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archaic a person who fails in an obligation or duty
adjective
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guilty of an offence or misdeed, esp one of a minor nature
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failing in or neglectful of duty or obligation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nondelinquentadjective
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predelinquentadjective
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undelinquentadjective
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delinquentlyadverb
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predelinquentlyadverb
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undelinquentlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of delinquent
1475–85; < Latin dēlinquent-; see delinquency
Explanation
The adjective delinquent describes something that is past due or people who are negligent in doing their duty. If you are delinquent in paying your delinquent library fines, you won't be able to check out any more books. You may have heard the term juvenile delinquent, which refers to a young (juvenile) person who gets in trouble, often with the law, but people of any age can be delinquent. A delinquent landlord is one who doesn't make repairs. A delinquent tenant is one who does not pay his rent.
Vocabulary lists containing delinquent
The Outsiders
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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Touching Spirit Bear
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The owner is delinquent on paying property taxes, county records show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
“I could go sit in a corner, and you can be a juvenile delinquent reading juvenile delinquent books.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Some 13% of credit card balances were 90 days or more delinquent in the first three months of the year, according to data released in May by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Unity, to make a long story longer, was in the air that year — and not just because my separated parents were bonding over their juvenile delinquent son.
From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026
Buphead has officially been a juvenile delinquent even longer than Byron.
From "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described those carrying out settler attacks as a handful of misguided young people: "150 juvenile delinquents", he's called them, or "70 teenagers from broken homes".
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
The RF also affords some measure of security against top-slashing thieves and delinquents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
Opened in 1873, the privately operated detention facility housed petty delinquents and orphans, said Marc Schindler, a professor at Georgetown who leads the project.
From Barron's ● Feb. 27, 2026
“We are not delinquents, we are not bad people, we are here to work to support our family.”
From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2025
“Some juvenile delinquents become our most successful citizens, while others crowd our prisons. What’s the difference?”
From "Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
