Delay
Delay , noun
[French délai, from Old French deleer to delay, or from Latin 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 compare Differ, Delay, v.]
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.
Delay , transitive verb
[Old French deleer, delaier, from the noun délai, or directly from Latin dilatare to enlarge, dilate, in Late Latin, to put off. See Delay, n., and compare Delate, 1st Defer, Dilate.]
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. [Obsolete]
The watery showers delay the raging wind.
Delay , intransitive verb
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.