- tardy
- tardy adj Tardy, late, behindhand, overdue can all designate persons or things that do not arrive or take place at the time set, the time due, or the expected and usual time.Tardy implies a lack of promptness or punctuality or a coming or happening or doing after the proper or appointed moment; it need not imply slowness in movement but may suggest rather a being delayed in starting or beginning{
ten years is a long time for a courtship, and she summons courage to spur her tardy swain— Seamus Kelly
}{the tardier indicators of business activity have finally begun to turn down— Fortune
}Late implies an opposition to early and usually connotes a failure to come or take place at the time due because of procrastination, slowness of movement or growth, or the interference of obstacles; it is applied especially to persons or to things that are governed by a schedule{be late for work
}{you are too late to get your dinner
}{the train is very late today
}{spring is very late this year
}Behindhand usually applies either directly or indirectly to persons who are in arrears (as in the payment of debts or in the fulfillment of obligations) or who are slower than normal (as in mental progress, in the acceptance of fashions, or in taking action){behindhand in the payment of his rent
}{a whole class who were behindhand with their lessons— Hawthorne
}{Spain, usually so behindhand in matters of art, displayed expressionists . . . even nonobjectivists— Gomez Sicre
}Overdue is applied to things that are affected by a person's being, or less often to a person that is, markedly late or behindhand; thus, a person is behindhand in the payment of his rent, but the rent is overdue when such a situation occurs; a ship is overdue when it is seriously or conspicuously behind its scheduled time of arrival{her gallant was now more than an hour overdue— Barclay
}{a peremptory demand ... for the settlement of an account long overdue— Norris
}Overdue also may refer to something that might logically or suitably have appeared or occurred a long time before{colonies that are overdue for liberation— Landman
}{the valuable work . . . received long overdue recognition— Kuney
}Antonyms: prompt
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.