Definition of "delinquent"

delinquent

/dɪˈlɪŋkwənt/

adjective
comparative more delinquent, superlative most delinquent
1. Late or failing to pay a debt or other financial obligation, like a mortgage or loan.
2. Failing in or neglectful of a duty or obligation; guilty of a misdeed or offense
noun
plural delinquents
1. One who disobeys or breaks rules or laws, or who acts against another's wishes.
  Quotations
  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.
  1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, page 269
2. A person who has not paid their debts.
3. (historical, derogatory) A royalist in the First English Civil War (1642-1646).

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