delay

See also: Delay

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English delaien, from Anglo-Norman delaier, Old French deslaier, from des- + Old French laier (“to leave”), a conflation of Old Frankish *latjan ("to delay, hinder"; from Proto-Germanic *latjaną (“to delay, hinder, stall”), from Proto-Indo-European *le(y)d- (“to leave, leave behind”)), and Old Frankish *laibjan ("to leave"; from Proto-Germanic *laibijaną (“to leave, cause to stay”), from Proto-Indo-European *leip- (“to remain, continue”)). Akin to Old English latian (“to delay, hesitate”), Old English latu (“a delay, a hindrance”), Old English lǣfan (“to leave”). More at let (to hinder), late, leave.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dɪˈleɪ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪ

Noun

delay (plural delays)

  1. A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
    the delay before the echo of a sound
    • Bible, Acts xxv. 17
      Without any delay, on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat.
    • Macaulay
      The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day.
Translations

Verb

delay (third-person singular simple present delays, present participle delaying, simple past and past participle delayed)

  1. To put off until a later time; to defer.
    • Bible, Matthew xxiv. 48
      My lord delayeth his coming.
  2. To retard; to stop, detain, or hinder, for a time.
    The mail is delayed by a heavy fall of snow.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 10, in The Celebrity:
      Mr. Cooke had had a sloop yacht built at Far Harbor, the completion of which had been delayed, and which was but just delivered. […] The Maria had a cabin, which was finished in hard wood and yellow plush, and accommodations for keeping things cold.
  3. (obsolete) To allay; to temper.
    • Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)
      The watery showers delay the raging wind.
Usage notes
  • This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs
Synonyms
  • See also Thesaurus:hinder
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle French délayer, ultimately from Latin dis- + ligō.

Verb

delay (third-person singular simple present delays, present participle delaying, simple past and past participle delayed)

  1. (obsolete) To dilute, temper.
  2. (obsolete) To assuage, quench, allay.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.12:
      Those dreadfull flames she also found delayd / And quenched quite like a consumed torch […].

Further reading

  • delay in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • delay in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English delay.

Pronunciation

Noun

delay m (plural delays)

  1. (posh, except in technical contexts) delay (period of time before an event being initiated and actually occurring)
    Synonym: atraso
  2. (audio engineering) delay (effect that produces echo-like repetitions in sound)
  3. (audio engineering) delay (unit that produces a delay effect)
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