Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.
- v. To postpone or delay needlessly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To put off till another day, or from day to day; delay; defer to a future time.
- Synonyms To postpone, adjourn, defer, retard, protract, prolong.
- To delay; be dilatory.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive To put off; to delay taking action; to wait until later.
- v. transitive To put off; to delay (something).
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To put off till to-morrow, or from day to day; to defer; to postpone; to delay.
- v. To delay; to be dilatory.
WordNet 3.0
- v. postpone or delay needlessly
- v. postpone doing what one should be doing
Etymologies
- From Latin prōcrastinātum, past participle of prōcrastinō ("defer, put off till tomorrow"), from prō ("in favor of") + crāstinus ("of or belonging to tomorrow"), from crās ("tomorrow") (Wiktionary)
- Latin prōcrāstināre, prōcrāstināt- : prō-, forward; see pro-1 + crāstinus, of tomorrow (from crās, tomorrow). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“One of my favorite ways to procrastinate is to use the power and breadth of the Internet to dredge up ephemera.”
“Partly because reading your post gave me a chance to once again procrastinate on writing my e-newsletter.”
“Plus, he reads the word procrastinate as "procrasturbate.”
Wired: Diary of a Self-Help Dropout: Flirting With the 4-Hour Workweek
“Besides the crowds, I think the biggest reason I usually procrastinate is shopping alone.”
“Pop Quizzy: Count the number of the word procrastinate and its other forms in the above paragraph.”
“In fact, the word procrastinate should be replaced by my name.”
“I’ve had a hold on creating a professional website because, well if I am honest, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to dedicate to creating a new website and keep pace with all my other writing and family commitment (oh and I haven’t had the need to procrastinate from a big project for a while!)”
“But it's also given me a whole new and improved way to procrastinate, which is part and parcel of the writer's trade.”
“I procrastinate, and the only way I know how to procrastinate is to go outside for a smoke.”
Chinese Gourmet Express - What We Eat Out of Stress-peration
“To procrastinate is to indefinitely postpone or to avoid performing a task out of anxiety, rather than time constraints or logic.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘procrastinate’.
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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 4087 more...
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Psychology
Chapter 1
rigorous, occurrence, maze, divers, intellectual, expansion, all in all, sensation, introspection, radical, orientation, nurture and 174 more...
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Words starting with PRO
I've noticed many, many words start with PRO and this is just a collection of them.
professional, pronunciation, Prolagus, probable, prog, proximity, profit, procrastincate, prom, pronoun, promise, proactive and 206 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Awesome Pronunciations
BRING IT ON!!!!!
!, !!, !!!, !!!!, !!!!!, peter piper, licet mihi venera..., aliquid in aere e..., SHAZAM!, dark-sided, vegan quiche...ev..., konstantinopolita... and 113 more...
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(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
replete, steeped, eminent, indiscriminate, voracious, automaton, prognosticate, technology, abound, matron, tinge, compound and 297 more...
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Words beginning with P
peripatetic, pearlescent, perfunctory, palliate, permafrost, prosthetic, pliant, pluvious, percussion, procrastinate, progeria, prognathism and 49 more...
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wile away
words for passing time
shilly-shally, procrastinate, dawdle, dilly-dally, wile, idle, loaf, loiter, idyll, putz, surf, trifle and 1 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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zanshin's Words
gargoyle, ennui, paradigm, aardvark, verisimilitude, ghoti, tenacity, nescience, guillemet, squonk, maven, moxie and 210 more...
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samuraizack's Words
floccinaucinihili..., pneumonoultramicr..., bombastic, existentialistic, velocipede, aglet, anatomical snuffbox, wonk, tang, funambulist, quakebuttock, flews and 390 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL P
pacifistic, pacify, palatable, palaver, palliate, pallid, palpable, pamper, panacea, pandemic, pandemonium, panegyric and 209 more...
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amy's GRE 2012
gimmicks, kowtow, unpretentious, skeptical, cynical, somber, prevaricate, equivocate, requisite, embellish, impregnable, procrastinate and 307 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for procrastinate.
jmjarmstrong JM has not yet begun to procrastinate. Jul 16, 2011
milosrdenstvi procrustinate: to have your time wasted by means of being tortured. See Procrustes. Jun 5, 2009
bilby I'm not procrastinating. I'm evaluating options so that I may arrive at a point where I can make the best possible decision. Jul 11, 2008
gangerh Something I am going to start to do tomorrow. Feb 20, 2008