- delay
- delay vb 1 Delay, retard, slow, slacken, detain are not always close synonyms, but they carry the same basic meaning: to cause someone or something to be behind in his or its schedule or usual rate of movement or progress.Delay implies the operation, usually the interference, of something that keeps back or impedes, especially from completion or arrival at a set or given time{
a plague upon that villain Somerset, that thus delays my promised supply— Shak.
}{a criminal court jury . . . delayed a verdict all afternoon—C. G. Jameson
}Retard applies especially to motion, movement, or progress and implies something which causes it to reduce its speed{retard the revolution of a wheel
}{the snow retards our progress
}{children retarded in development
}{mental evolution has perhaps retarded the progress of physical changes— Inge
}{the rate of decay [of radioactive substances] cannot be expedited or retarded by any known physical process— Jeans
}Slow (often followed by up or down)and slacken also imply a reduction in speed or rate of progress, but slow usually implies deliberation or intention and slacken, an easing or letting up or a relaxation of some sort{the engineer slowed down the train as he ap-proached the city
}{the doctor administered digitalis to slow up his pulse
}{as we turned into Compton Street together he slowed his step— Brace
}{he slackened his pace to a walk
}{having never slackened her . . . search for your father— Dickens
}Detain (see also ARREST 2) implies a being held back beyond an appointed time, often with resulting delay in arrival or departure or in accomplishment of what one has in mind{I had been detained by unexpected business in the neighbor-hood— Conrad
}{tell him that as I have a headache I won't detain him today— Hardy
}{you will not thank me for detaining you from the bewitching converse of that young lady— Austen
}{I slipped my arm around her slender body to detain her— Hudson
}Antonyms: expedite: hastenContrasted words: *speed, hasten, hurry, accelerate, quicken, precipitate2 Delay, procrastinate, lag, loiter, dawdle mean to move or act slowly so that progress is hindered or work remains undone or unfinished.Delay (for transitive sense see DELAY 1) usually carries an implication of putting off something (as departure, initiation of an action or activity, or accomplishment of necessary work){when he had his instructions, he did not delay an instant
}{time and again were we warned of the dykes, time and again we delayed— Kipling
}Procrastinate implies blameworthy or inexcusable delay usually resulting from laziness, indifference, hesitation, or the habit of putting off until tomorrow what should be done today{the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. One yawns, one procrastinates, one can do it when one will, and there-fore one seldom does it at all— Chesterfield
}{a timid, unsystematic, procrastinating ministry— Burke
}{to fumble, to vacillate, to procrastinate and so let war come creeping upon us almost unawares— White
}Lag implies a failure to maintain a speed or pace, either one set by and therefore in comparison with that of another or one requisite to some end or goal{after an hour's brisk walk, two of the hikers lagged behind the rest
}{it was a time of great men, but our learning and scholarship lagged far behind those of Germany— Inge
}{military preparation does lag at a shameful rate— Carlyle
}{the production of certain parts necessary for airplanes is lagging
}Loiter implies delay while in progress, commonly while one is walking but sometimes while one is trying to accomplish a piece of work; it also suggests lingering or aimless sauntering or lagging behind{very little remained to be done. Catherine had not loitered; she was almost dressed, and her packing almost finished— Austen
}{the caravan has to go on; to loiter at any distance behind is to court extinction— Montague
}{the children sauntered down Sloane Street, loitering at the closed shop windows, clinking their shillings in their pockets— Rose Macaulay
}Dawdle carries a slighter implication of delay in progress (especially in walking) than loiter but an even stronger connotation of idleness, aimlessness, or of a wandering mind; consequently it usually implies a wasting of time or a taking of more time than is warranted{dawdle through four years of college
}{the new maid dawdles over her work
}{I did not hurry the rest of the way home; but neither did I dawdle— Heiser
}{the sun dawdles intolerably on the threshold like a tedious guest— Jan Struther
}Antonyms: hasten, hurry
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
