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Delay ,
n.;
pl. Delays . [F. délai, fr. OF. deleer to delay, or fr. L. dilatum, which, though really from a different root, is used in Latin only as a p. p. neut. of differre to carry apart, defer, delay. See Tolerate, and cf. Differ, Delay, v.] A putting off or deferring; procrastination; lingering inactivity; stop; detention; hindrance.1913 Webster
Without any delay, on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat.
Acts xxv. 17.
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The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day.
Macaulay.
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Delay,
v. t. [imp. & p. p. Delayed ; p. pr. & vb. n. Delaying.] [OF. deleer, delaier, fr. the noun délai, or directly fr. L. dilatare to enlarge, dilate, in LL., to put off. See Delay, n., and cf. Delate, 1st Defer, Dilate.]- To put off; to defer; to procrastinate; to prolong the time of or before.
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My lord delayeth his coming.
Matt. xxiv. 48.
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- To retard; to stop, detain, or hinder, for a time; to retard the motion, or time of arrival, of; as, the mail is delayed by a heavy fall of snow.
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Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed
The huddling brook to hear his madrigal.
Milton.
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- To allay; to temper. [Obs.]
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The watery showers delay the raging wind.
Surrey.
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Delay,
v. i. To move slowly; to stop for a time; to linger; to tarry.1913 Webster
There seem to be certain bounds to the quickness and slowness of the succession of those ideas, . . . beyond which they can neither delay nor hasten.
Locke.
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