Definitions for Delay
dɪˈleɪde·lay

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:3.5 / 4 votes

1. delay, hold, time lag, postponement, waitnoun

   time during which some action is awaited

   "instant replay caused too long a delay"; "he ordered a hold in the action"

2. delay, holdupverb

   the act of delaying; inactivity resulting in something being put off until a later time

3. delay, detain, hold upverb

   cause to be slowed down or delayed

   "Traffic was delayed by the bad weather"; "she delayed the work that she didn't want to perform"

4. delayverb

   act later than planned, scheduled, or required

   "Don't delay your application to graduate school or else it won't be considered"

5. stay, detain, delayverb

   stop or halt

   "Please stay the bloodshed!"

6. check, retard, delayverb

   slow the growth or development of

   "The brain damage will retard the child's language development"

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. delaynoun

   previously unexpected period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying.

2. delayverb

   To put off until a later time; to distract.

3. delayverb

   To retard; to stop, detain, or hinder, for a time.

4. Etymology: From delaien, from delaier, deslaier, from des- + laier, a conflation of Old, and Old. Akin to latian, latu, læfan. More at let (to hinder), late, leave.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Delaynoun

   A deferring; procrastination; lingering inactivity.

   Etymology: from the verb.

   I have learn’d that fearful commenting
   Is leaden servitor to dull delay;
   Delay leads impotent and snail-pac’d beggary. William Shakespeare, R. III.

   The conduct of our lives, and the management of our great concerns, will not bear delay. John Locke.

   2. Stay; stop.

   The keeper charm’d, the chief without delay
   Pass’d on, and took the irremediable way. John Dryden, Æn. 6.

2. To DELAYverb

   Etymology: from delayer, French.

   1. To defer; to put off.

   And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron. Ex. xxxii. 1.

   2. To hinder; to frustrate.

   She flies the town, and mixing with a throng
   Of madding matrons, bears the bride along:
   Wand’ring through woods and wilds, and devious ways,
   And with these arts the Trojan match delays. John Dryden, Æn.

   Be mindful, goddess, of thy promise made!
   Must sad Ulysses ever be delay’d? Alexander Pope, Odyssey, b. x.

3. To Delayverb

   To stop; to cease from action.

   There seem to be certain bounds to the quickness and slowness of the succession of those ideas one to another in our minds, beyond which they can neither delay nor hasten. John Locke.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:3.5 / 2 votes

1. Delay

   a putting off or deferring; procrastination; lingering inactivity; stop; detention; hindrance

2. Delaynoun

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

3. Delaynoun

   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

4. Delaynoun

   to allay; to temper

5. Delayverb

   to move slowly; to stop for a time; to linger; to tarry

6. Etymology: [OF. deleer, delaier, fr. the noun dlai, or directly fr. L. dilatare to enlarge, dilate, in LL., to put off. See Delay, n., and cf. Delate, 1st Defer, Dilate.]

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Delay

   Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Delay

   de-lā′, v.t. to put off to another time: to defer: to hinder or retard.—v.i. to pause, linger, or put off time.—n. a putting off or deferring: a lingering: hinderance:—pr.p. delay′ing; pa.p. delayed′.—n. Delay′er.—adv. Delay′ingly. [O. Fr. delaier—L. differre, dilātum—dis, apart, ferre, to carry.]

2. Delay

   de-lā′, v.t. (Spens.) to temper, dilute, weaken. [Fr. délayer, dilute—L. deliquāre, clarify.]

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. DELAY

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Delay is ranked #9037 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Delay surname appeared 3,616 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 would have the surname Delay.
   
   82.1% or 2,970 total occurrences were White.
   7.5% or 273 total occurrences were Black.
   4.1% or 151 total occurrences were Asian.
   3.4% or 125 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   1.8% or 68 total occurrences were of two or more races.
   0.8% or 29 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

Matched Categories

1. • Wait

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Delay' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4077

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Delay' in Written Corpus Frequency: #4483

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Delay' in Nouns Frequency: #1299

4. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'Delay' in Verbs Frequency: #609

Anagrams for Delay »

1. leady

How to pronounce Delay?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Delay in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Delay in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Delay in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of Delay in a Sentence

1. Jim Condos:

   It's important that any legislation passed by Congress regarding election administration includes funding for states to have the resources which are necessary to continue our work protecting the integrity of our electoral process, while I applaud the intent behind the Secure Elections Act, I believe that it was correct to delay a vote today as the legislation needs to be worked further.

2. Ashley Poust:

   Living birds shoot up to adult size very quickly, mainly as a way of getting strong enough to fly as soon as they can. But they may delay getting their adult feathers for a long time. Gulls, for example, don't look like adults for three or four years even though they learn to fly in only three months.

3. Ting Lu:

   The jump will likely give a big boost to stock markets and could delay a cut in the reserve requirement ratio (RRR).

4. Connie Lehman:

   Don't delay either. Get both.

5. Stephen Miller:

   They have an obligation to share with the American people immediately without delay everything they know about how this individual entered the country whether it through a visa or the visa waiver program, what red flags existed, what criminal record existed, what prior immigration history if any existed…were there any errors, lies or misstatements on the application, what procedure he went through, because if someone with this kind of history can apparently get into the country with that degree of ease, somebody with an apparent history of extremism, and terrorist sympathies, then it indicates that all the guardrails when it comes to vetting are gone.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=Delay
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Delay
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=Delay
4. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Delay
5. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=Delay
6. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=Delay
7. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
   https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html