delay
Syllables: de·layUK/dɪˈleɪ//dɪˈleɪ/
delay noun: a period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
Noun
delay (countable and uncountable, plural delays)
- A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
- the delay before the echo of a sound
- Two twenty minutes' delays.
- Synonyms:
- cunctation
- An audio effects unit that introduces a controlled delay.
- The 8-bit sound quality of many early delays did indeed leave a lot to be desired (compare this to the 16-bit digital technology of CDs)2014, Dave Hunter, Guitar Amps and Effects For Dummies, page 259
- Synonym of promise (“object representing delayed result”).
- Synonyms:
- promise
- An amount of time provided on each move before one's clock starts to tick; a less common time control than increment.
Verb (1)
delay (third-person singular simple present delays, present participle delaying, simple past and past participle delayed)
- To put off until a later time; to defer.
- My lord delayeth his coming.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 24:48
- To retard; to temporarily stop, detain, or hinder.
- The mail is delayed by a heavy fall of snow.
- Mr. Cooke had had a sloop yacht built at Far Harbor, the completion of which had been delayed, and which was but just delivered. […] The Maria had a cabin, which was finished in hard wood and yellow plush, and accommodations for keeping things cold.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- belate
- To wait, hesitate, tarry.
- Don't delay; this special offer ends at midnight!
- Don't delay
Something tells me I gotta go away2009, Ingrid Michaelson, “Once Was Love”, in Everybody
- Synonyms:
- procrastinate
- To allay; to temper.
- The watery showers delay the raging wind.a. 1547, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, The faithful Lover declareth his Pains and his uncertain Joys, and with only Hope recomforteth somewhat his woful Heart
- Synonyms:
- calm
Verb (2)
delay (third-person singular simple present delays, present participle delaying, simple past and past participle delayed)
Proper noun capitalized: Delay
Delay (plural Delays)
- A surname.
delay meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
delay in Hindi
- period of time before an event occurs; act of delaying
- देर der, विलंब vilamb
delay in Tamil
- தாமதம், காலதாமதம், தாமதம் செய்
delay in Marathi
- विलंब, विलंब करणे, विलंबित करणे
delay in Urdu
- period of time before an event occurs; act of delaying
- دیر der
More languagesFewer languages
- delay in Bengali
- দেরি deri, দেরেঙ্গ dereṅgô
- delay in Telugu
- ఆలస్యము ālasyamu
- delay in Malayalam
- അമാന്തം amāntaṁ, താമസം tāmasaṁ
- delay in Kannada
- ತಡೆ taḍe
- delay in Punjabi
- چر cir, ویر ver, ਛੇਕੜ chekaṛ, ਚਿਰ cir
- delay in Odia
- ଡେରି ḍeri
- delay in Sanskrit
- चिर cirá, क्षेप kṣepa
- delay in Assamese
- পলম polom, দেৰি deri
- delay in Nepali
- ढिलाइ, विलम्ब, विलम्ब गर्नुहोस्
- delay in Pashto
- ځنډ źanḍ
- delay in Arabic
- تَأْخِير taʔḵīr, تَأَخَّر taʔaḵḵar, أَجَّلَ ʔajjala, أَبْطَأَ ʔabṭaʔa
- delay in Malay
- tangguhkan
- delay in Indonesian
- keterlambatan
- delay in Persian
- دِرَنگ derang, دیرکَرد dirkard
- delay in Thai
- ดีเลย์, รอรี, รีรอ, ลังเล lang-lee
- delay in Vietnamese
- hoãn, trì hoãn
- Kashmiri
- ژیر ċēr, بیٹھ bēṭh, ہیٹھ hēṭh, ژرٛیٹھ ċrēṭh
Examples of delay in a sentence
- Without any delay, on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 25:17:
- The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day.1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume 1, London: A. and W. Galignani &...
- In this article I'm thinking about the big delays, over two hours.2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 42:
Synonyms of delay
24 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of delay
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | delays |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | delays |
| present participle | delaying |
| past participle | delayed |
| past | delayed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Delays |
Origin of delay
From Middle English delaien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman delaier, Old French deslaier, from des- + Old French laier (“to leave”), a conflation of Old Frankish *lattjan ("to delay, hinder"; from Proto-Germanic *latjaną (“to delay, hinder, stall”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₁d- (“to leave, leave behind”)), and Old Frankish *laibijan ("to leave"; from Proto-Germanic *laibijaną (“to leave, cause to stay”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to remain, continue”)). Doublet of dally. Akin to Old English latian (“to delay, hesitate”), Old English latu (“a delay, a hindrance”), Old English lǣfan (“to leave”). More at let (to hinder), late, leave.
From Middle English delaien, from Old French delaiier, a variant of delaissier.
Words formed from delay
- broadcast delay
- call delay
- danger in delay
- delay differential equation
- delay line
- delay slot
- delay tactic
- delay time
- language delay
- multidelay
- pay-for-delay
- predelay
- profanity delay
- propagation delay
- rain delay
- round-trip delay time
- Shapiro delay
- tape delay
- time-delay
- time delay
- delayability
- delayable
- delayal
- delayed critical
- delayed criticality
- delayed ejaculation
- delayed miscarriage
- delayed neutron
- delayed-onset muscle soreness
- delayed onset muscle soreness
- delayed puberty
- delayed sleep phase disorder
- delayer
- delayingly
- delaying tactic
- delayism
- delay no more
- justice delayed is justice denied
- nondelaying
- redelay
- undelaying
Phrases with delay
Words that rhyme with delay
Questions about delay
- What does delay mean?
- Delay means a period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
- What is delay in Hindi?
- Delay in Hindi is देर (der), विलंब (vilamb). See Delay meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use delay in a sentence?
- Without any delay, on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat.
- What part of speech is delay?
- Delay can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce delay?
- Delay is pronounced /dɪˈleɪ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of delay?
- The plural of delay is delays.
Words near delay in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: delay (page history and authors); Delay (page history and authors); delay (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); delay (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); দেরি (Bengali) (page history and authors); അമാന്തം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ತಡೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ویر (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ଡେରି (Odia) (page history and authors); क्षेप (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); delay (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-delay.ogg.
Cite this entry: “delay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/delay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.