delay.
A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
Meaning & usage
A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
the delay before the echo of a sound
Two twenty minutes' delays.
An audio effects unit that introduces a controlled delay.
Synonym of promise (“object representing delayed result”).
An amount of time provided on each move before one's clock starts to tick; a less common time control than increment.
Where this word comes from
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.
To put off until a later time; to defer.
To retard; to temporarily stop, detain, or hinder.
The mail is delayed by a heavy fall of snow.
To wait, hesitate, tarry.
Don't delay; this special offer ends at midnight!
To allay; to temper.
Where this word comes from
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.
To dilute, temper.
To assuage, quench, allay.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English delaien, from Old French delaiier, a variant of delaissier.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.