Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Occurring, arriving, acting, or done after the scheduled, expected, or usual time; late.
  • adjective Moving or progressing slowly; sluggish.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Moving with a slow pace or motion; slow; sluggish.
  • Late; dilatory; behindhand.
  • Characterized by or proceeding from reluctance; unwilling to move or act; hanging back.
  • Synonyms Dilatory, etc. (see slow), slack, procrastinating.
  • To delay; retard; hinder.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Moving with a slow pace or motion; slow; not swift.
  • adjective Not being inseason; late; dilatory; -- opposed to prompt.
  • adjective obsolete Unwary; unready.
  • adjective obsolete Criminal; guilty.
  • transitive verb obsolete To make tardy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Late; overdue or delayed.
  • adjective ineffectual; slow witted, slow to act, or dullard
  • noun US A piece of paper given to students who are late to class.
  • verb obsolete, transitive To make tardy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective after the expected or usual time; delayed

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of Middle English tardive, slow, from Old French tardif, from Vulgar Latin *tardīvus, from Latin tardus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From an earlier tardive, from Old French tardif, from Vulgar Latin *tardivus, from Latin tardus ("slow”, “sluggish").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word tardy.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.