Delay /(?)/

pl. Delays

1. A putting off or deferring; procrastination; lingering inactivity; stop; detention; hindrance.

   Without any delay, on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat.

   The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day.

imp. & p. p. Delayed; p. pr. & vb. n. Delaying

1. To put off; to defer; to procrastinate; to prolong the time of or before.

   My lord delayeth his coming.

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.

3. To allay; to temper. [Obs.]

   The watery showers delay the raging wind.

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.