delay

1 time during which some action is awaited; "instant replay caused too long a delay"; "he ordered a hold in the action" [syn: hold, time lag, postponement, wait]

2 the act of delaying; inactivity resulting in something being put off until a later time [syn: holdup]

1 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" [syn: detain, hold up] [ant: rush]

2 act later than planned, scheduled, or required; "Don't delay your application to graduate school or else it won't be considered"

3 stop or halt; "Please stay the bloodshed!" [syn: stay, detain]

4 slow the growth or development of; "The brain damage will retard the child's language development" [syn: check, retard]

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪ

Noun

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

Translations

Verb

1. To put off until a later time; to distract.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Translations

• Dutch: uitstellen
• Finnish: viivyttää, viivästyttää, siirtää
• French: retarder
• German: (sich) verspäten, (etwas) verschieben
• Kurdish:
• Russian: откладывать , отложить
• Spanish: retrasar
• Swedish: skjuta upp
• Turkish: ertelemek, rötar

In its general sense, delay refers to a lapse of time. In other contexts, it may refer to one of many topics:

Law

• To delay payment of a debt, a crime in the United Kingdom

Telecommunications and broadcasting

• Broadcast delay, a practice of time-shifting transmissions
• Delay encoding, a radio transmission technique
• Network delay, the delay of an IP packet within an IP network

Physics and electronics

• Propagation delay, a measurement of the time for a signal to reach its destination
• Delay line, one of any technologies for shifting a signal in time

Audio

• Delay (audio effect), a technology for producing delayed playback of an audio signal

Computer Science

• Delay (programming), a programming language construct for delaying evaluation of an expression

Transporting

• Delay, an abnormity of adherence to timetable (see public transport timetables, airline timetables, traffic order, schedule, sailing list etc.)

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