Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To put off; postpone.
- v. To postpone the induction of (one eligible for the military draft).
- v. To procrastinate.
- v. To submit to the opinion, wishes, or decision of another through respect or in recognition of his or her authority, knowledge, or judgment. See Synonyms at yield.
- v. To commit or entrust to another.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To offer; render; assign: as, to defer the command of an army.
- To refer; leave to another's judgment and determination
- To yield to another's opinion; submit in opinion: with to.
- To delay; put off; postpone to a future time: as, to defer the execution of a design.
- To cause to wait; remand; put off: applied to persons.
- To wait; delay; procrastinate.
Wiktionary
- v. To delay, or postpone, especially to postpone induction into military service.
- v. To submit to the opinion or desire of another in respect to their judgment or authority.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To put off; to postpone to a future time; to delay the execution of; to delay; to withhold.
- v. To put off; to delay to act; to wait.
- v. To render or offer.
- v. To lay before; to submit in a respectful manner; to refer; -- with
to . - v. To yield deference to the wishes of another; to submit to the opinion of another, or to authority; -- with
to .
WordNet 3.0
- v. yield to another's wish or opinion
- v. hold back to a later time
Etymologies
- Middle English differren, to postpone, differ; see differ.Middle English deferen, from Old French deferer, from Latin dēferre, to carry away, refer to : dē-, de- + ferre, to carry; see bher-1 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“To defer from the steven King inflection it should be referenced as a Viral of vampires.”
“Captain Sears did defer, that is he seldom opposed.”
“Now you may wonder why it's called defer and lazyload and I talked about not loading at all.”
“One alternative: defer social security -- it also increases 8% for every year you defer, which is higher than most investments pay.”
“Although he said he wanted to come back for a final year in 2010, Bowden chose to call it a career after reviewing the parameters the school sought to have him work within next year -- namely defer much of his responsibility to coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher.”
“Although he said he wanted to come back for a final year in 2010, Bowden chose to call it a career after reviewing the parameters the school sought to have him work within next year - namely defer much of his responsibility to coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher.”
“At this week's Homeland Security hearing, when FBI Director Mueller was questioned about it by Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich), Mueller said he would "defer" to the Justice Department on the issue.”
The Huffington Post: Dennis A. Henigan: Close the "Terror Gap": Good Policy, Good Politics
“It's not just the fact that Cheney never served in the military; it's that all the archtects of the Iraq War – Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rove, and many of their most vocal supporters like Limbaugh – all found ways to "defer" from serving.”
Cheney wrong on interrogation inquiry facts, Obama official says
“April 30th is effectively the end for Shuttle and just this week, CxP began looking at plans to mostly "defer" the Lunar capabilities on Orion, effectively killing the original purpose of the program.”
“Recognizing that the U.S. has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, the government should not eliminate the current provision that allows companies to "defer" paying a U.S. tax on foreign income until it is brought back into this country.”
The Wall Street Journal: A Centrist Agenda for Economic Growth
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘defer’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
oroboros Refed in reverse. Nov 2, 2007