delinquent

Borrowed from Middle French délinquant, ultimately from Latin delinquens, present participle of delinquo.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈlɪŋkwənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

delinquent (comparative more delinquent, superlative most delinquent)

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.

   The company made a new effort to collect delinquent payments.

2. Failing in or neglectful of a duty or obligation; guilty of a misdeed or offense

• (late or failing to pay a debt): defaulting

• juvenile delinquent
• moral delinquent

delinquent (plural delinquents)

1. One who disobeys or breaks rules or laws, or who acts against another's wishes.
   • 1838 (date written), L E L[andon], chapter XXI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , published 1842, →OCLC, page 269:

     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. (historical, derogatory) A royalist in the First English Civil War (1642-1646).

In relation to the royalist sense, Charles I of England was known as "the chief delinquent".

• (one who breaks the law): See also Thesaurus:criminal
• (royalist): cavalier

Borrowed from Latin dēlinquens.

• IPA^(key): /ˌdeː.liˈkʋɛnt/, /ˌdeː.lɪŋˈkʋɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: de‧lin‧quent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

delinquent m (plural delinquenten, diminutive delinquentje n)

1. criminal

   Synonyms: crimineel, misdadiger

• delinquant (obsolete)

• Afrikaans: delinkwent

dēlinquent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of dēlinquō