delay Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun time during which some action is awaited
    hold; postponement; time lag; wait.
    • instant replay caused too long a delay
    • he ordered a hold in the action
  2. noun the act of delaying; inactivity resulting in something being put off until a later time
    holdup.
  3. verb cause to be slowed down or delayed
    hold up; detain.
    • Traffic was delayed by the bad weather
    • she delayed the work that she didn't want to perform
  4. verb act later than planned, scheduled, or required
    • Don't delay your application to graduate school or else it won't be considered
  5. verb stop or halt
    detain; stay.
    • Please stay the bloodshed!
  6. verb slow the growth or development of
    retard; check.
    • The brain damage will retard the child's language development

WordNet

De*lay" noun
Etymology
F. délai, fr. OF. deleer to delay, or fr. L. dilatum, which, though really from a different root, is used in Latin only as a p. p. neut. of differre to carry apart, defer, delay. See Tolerate, and cf. Differ, Delay, v.
Wordforms
plural Delays
Definitions
  1. A putting off or deferring; procrastination; lingering inactivity; stop; detention; hindrance.
    Without any delay, on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat. Acts xxv. 17.
    The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day. Macaulay.
De*lay" transitive verb
Etymology
OF. deleer, delaier, fr. the noun délai, or directly fr. L. dilatare to enlarge, dilate, in LL., to put off. See Delay, n., and cf. Delate, 1st Defer, Dilate.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Delayed ; present participle & verbal noun Delaying
Definitions
  1. To put off; to defer; to procrastinate; to prolong the time of or before.
    My lord delayeth his coming. Matt. xxiv. 48.
  2. To retard; to stop, detain, or hinder, for a time; to retard the motion, or time of arrival, of; as, the mail is delayed by a heavy fall of snow.
    Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal. Milton.
  3. To allay; to temper. Obs.
    The watery showers delay the raging wind. Surrey.
De*lay" intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To move slowly; to stop for a time; to linger; to tarry.
    There seem to be certain bounds to the quickness and slowness of the succession of those ideas, . . . beyond which they can neither delay nor hasten. Locke.

Webster 1913