delay

English Online Dictionary. What means delay‎? What does delay mean?

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English delaien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman delaier, Old French deslaier, from des- + Old French laier (“to leave”), a conflation of Old Frankish *lattjan ("to delay, hinder"; from Proto-Germanic *latjaną (“to delay, hinder, stall”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₁d- (“to leave, leave behind”)), and Old Frankish *laibijan ("to leave"; from Proto-Germanic *laibijaną (“to leave, cause to stay”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to remain, continue”)). Doublet of dally.

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈleɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /dəˈleɪ/, /dɪ-/
• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Hyphenation: de‧lay

Noun

delay (countable and uncountable, plural delays)

1. A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
2. (music) An audio effects unit that introduces a controlled delay.
3. (programming, Clojure) Synonym of promise (“object representing delayed result”)
4. (chess) An amount of time provided on each move before one's clock starts to tick; a less common time control than increment.

Synonyms

• (period of time): cunctation, hold-up; see also Thesaurus:delay

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Portuguese: delay

Translations

Verb

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

1. (transitive, intransitive) To put off until a later time; to defer.
2. To retard; to stop, detain, or hinder, for a time.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To allay; to temper.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Synonyms

• (put off until a later time): adjourn, defer, forslow, penelopize, postpone, put off, put on ice, suspend; See also Thesaurus:procrastinate
• (retard): belate, forslow, get in the way, hold up, impede; See also Thesaurus:hinder
• (allay): calm, moderate, quell; See also Thesaurus:pacify

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English delaien, from Old French delaiier, a variant of delaissier.

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.

Further reading

• “delay”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “delay”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Adley, Daley, Dealy, Leday, dealy, ladye, layed, leady

Maranao

Noun

delay

1. Job's tears

References

• A Maranao Dictionary, by Howard P. McKaughan and Batua A. Macaraya

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English delay.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /de.ˈlej/

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)