Word.ws English Dictionary

defer

Syllables: de·fer/dɪˈfeː//dɪˈfɜː/

defer verb: to delay or postpone.

Verb (1)

defer (third-person singular simple present defers, present participle deferring, simple past and past participle deferred)

  1. (transitive) To delay or postpone.
    • We're going to defer the decision until we have all the facts.
    • Deferre the ſpoile of the Citie vntill night:1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    1. (common, especially, transitive, historically) to postpone induction into military service.
  2. After winning the opening coin toss, to postpone until the start of the second half a team's choice of whether to kick off or receive (and to allow the opposing team to make this choice at the start of the first half).
  3. (intransitive) To delay, to wait.
    • God […] will not long defer / To vindicate the glory of his name1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 34, lines...

Verb (2)

defer (third-person singular simple present defers, present participle deferring, simple past and past participle deferred)

  1. (ambitransitive) To submit to the opinion or desire of others in respect to their judgment or authority.
    • Hereupon the commissioners […] deferred the matter to the Earl of Northumberland.1622, Francis Bacon, History of the Reign of King Henry VII
    • "Defer/Defer/To the Lord High Executioner."1885, W.S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, The Mikado
    Synonyms:
    submit
  2. To render, to offer.
    • worship deferred to the Virgin1872, Daniel Brevint, Saul and Samuel at Endor

defer meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

defer in Hindi

to defer, postpone or procrastinate
टालना ṭālnā

defer in Tamil

எதிர்ப்பு, கீழ்ப்படியாமை, தள்ளி, ஒத்திவை, தள்ளி வை, மீறுகை

defer in Urdu

to defer, postpone or procrastinate
ٹالنا ṭālnā

defer in Bengali

বিলম্বিত করা
More languagesFewer languages
defer in Malayalam
താമസപ്പെടുത്തുക, മാറ്റിവയ്ക്കുക, കാലതാമസം വരുത്തുക, വിളംബിക്കുക
defer in Kannada
ಮುಂದೂಡು, ಮುಂದಕ್ಕೆ ಹಾಕು, ತಳ್ಳು, ತಡಮಾಡು
defer in Persian
تمکین کردن tamkin kardan

Examples of defer in a sentence

  • With her successes, she has truly conquered the committee, all of whose members now defer to her on most issues.
  • Rather, they are aspirational technological dreamware that defer immediate and sustained action on emissions.
  • I respectfully state that if we defer till tomorrow it will create unnecessary misgrieving.

All 14 example sentences with defer

Synonyms of defer

Forms of defer

third-person singular presentdefers
present participledeferring
past participledeferred
pastdeferred

Past tense of defer: deferred

Origin of defer

Originally a variant of (and hence a doublet of) differ; from Middle English differren (“to postpone”), from Old French differer, from Latin differō. Doublet of differ and dilate. See also infer, collate and confer, delate and defer, relate and refer as well as prelate and prefer among others.

From late Middle English differren (“to refer for judgement”), from Middle French déférer, from Latin dēferō. Doublet of delate. See also infer, collate and confer, relate and refer, as well as prelate and prefer among others.

Words formed from defer

Words that rhyme with defer

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about defer

What does defer mean?
Defer means to delay or postpone.
What is defer in Hindi?
Defer in Hindi is टालना (ṭālnā). See Defer meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is defer?
Defer is a verb.
How do you pronounce defer?
Defer is pronounced /dɪˈfɜː/ (UK).
What is the past tense of defer?
The past tense of defer is deferred.

Words near defer in the dictionary

  1. defensory
  2. defensour
  3. defensours
  4. Defeo
  5. Defeos
  6. defer
  7. deferable
  8. deferasirox
  9. deference
  10. deferences
  11. deferent

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: defer (page history and authors); टालना (Hindi) (page history and authors); defer (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ٹالنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); defer (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); defer (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); defer (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “defer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/defer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.