Defn: 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.
DELAY De*lay", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Delayed; p. pr. & vb. n. Delaying.] Etym: [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.]
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.
DELAY
De*lay", v. i.
Defn: 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.
DELAYER
De*lay"er, n.
Defn: One who delays; one who lingers.
DELAYINGLY
De*lay"ing*ly, adv.