defers

defers is the third-person singular simple present indicative of defer.

Meaning of defer

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

(transitive) To delay or postpone.
- We're going to defer the decision until we have all the facts.
1. (common, especially, transitive, historically) to postpone induction into military service.
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).
(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...

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

(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
Synonyms:

submit
To render, to offer.
- worship deferred to the Virgin1872, Daniel Brevint, Saul and Samuel at Endor

What is defers the third-person singular simple present indicative of?: Defers is the third-person singular simple present indicative of defer.

Adapted from Wiktionary: defers (page history and authors); defer (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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