Word.ws English Dictionary

delaying

delaying is the present participle and gerund of delay.

Meaning of delay

Verb (1)

delay (third-person singular simple present delays, present participle delaying, simple past and past participle delayed)

  1. (transitive) 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
  2. (transitive) To retard; to temporarily stop, detain, or hinder.
    • The mail is delayed by a heavy fall of snow.
    Synonyms:
    belate
  3. (intransitive) To wait, hesitate, tarry.
    • Don't delay; this special offer ends at midnight!
    Synonyms:
    procrastinate
  4. (obsolete, transitive) 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)

  1. (obsolete) To dilute, temper.
  2. (obsolete) To assuage, quench, allay.
    • Those dreadfull flames she also found delayd / And quenched quite like a consumed torch […].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

See all 11 meanings of delay

Noun

delaying (plural delayings)

  1. A delay.
    • […] a hearing, with a file of orders in the solicitor's bundle, as big as the common-prayer-book, for commissions, injunctions, publications, speedings, delayings, and other interlocutories; all dear ware to the client in every respect.1826, Roger North, The Lives of the Right Hon. Francis North, Baron Guilford; the Hon. Sir Dudley North; and the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North
    • However, there was no profit in cowardly delayings; booted and breeched, we sallied forth into a cold, ungenial morning such as you get in Switzerland […]1909, Reginald Farrer, In a Yorkshire Garden

Forms of delaying

pluraldelayings

Phrases with delaying

Questions about delaying

What does delaying mean?
Delaying means a delay.
What is delaying the present participle and gerund of?
Delaying is the present participle and gerund of delay.
What part of speech is delaying?
Delaying is a noun.
What is the plural of delaying?
The plural of delaying is delayings.

Words near delaying in the dictionary

  1. delayered
  2. delayering
  3. delayers
  4. delayeth
  5. delayful
  6. delaying
  7. delaying tactic
  8. delaying tactics
  9. delayingly
  10. delayings
  11. delayism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: delaying (page history and authors); delay (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: “delaying.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/delaying. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.