Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To offer; render; assign: as, to defer the command of an army.
  • To refer; leave to another's judgment and determination
  • To yield to another's opinion; submit in opinion: with to.
  • To delay; put off; postpone to a future time: as, to defer the execution of a design.
  • To cause to wait; remand; put off: applied to persons.
  • To wait; delay; procrastinate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To put off; to delay to act; to wait.
  • transitive verb To put off; to postpone to a future time; to delay the execution of; to delay; to withhold.
  • intransitive verb To yield deference to the wishes of another; to submit to the opinion of another, or to authority; -- with to.
  • transitive verb obsolete To render or offer.
  • transitive verb To lay before; to submit in a respectful manner; to refer; -- with to.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To delay, or postpone, especially to postpone induction into military service.
  • verb law To submit to the opinion or desire of another in respect to their judgment or authority.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb yield to another's wish or opinion
  • verb hold back to a later time

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word defer.

Examples

  • To defer from the steven King inflection it should be referenced as a Viral of vampires.

    Paranormal Pluralizations 2009

  • To defer from the steven King inflection it should be referenced as a Viral of vampires.

    Paranormal Pluralizations » E-Mail 2009

  • Captain Sears did defer, that is he seldom opposed.

    Fair Harbor Joseph Crosby Lincoln 1907

  • Although he said he wanted to come back for a final year in 2010, Bowden chose to call it a career after reviewing the parameters the school sought to have him work within next year -- namely defer much of his responsibility to coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher.

    ESPNsoccernet 2009

  • Although he said he wanted to come back for a final year in 2010, Bowden chose to call it a career after reviewing the parameters the school sought to have him work within next year -- namely defer much of his responsibility to coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher.

    ESPNsoccernet 2009

  • Now you may wonder why it's called defer and lazyload and I talked about not loading at all.

    Planet Python 2009

  • One alternative: defer social security -- it also increases 8% for every year you defer, which is higher than most investments pay.

    NBC3 - Local News 2009

  • Although he said he wanted to come back for a final year in 2010, Bowden chose to call it a career after reviewing the parameters the school sought to have him work within next year -- namely defer much of his responsibility to coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher.

    ESPNsoccernet 2009

  • Although he said he wanted to come back for a final year in 2010, Bowden chose to call it a career after reviewing the parameters the school sought to have him work within next year -- namely defer much of his responsibility to coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher.

    ESPNsoccernet 2009

  • Although he said he wanted to come back for a final year in 2010, Bowden chose to call it a career after reviewing the parameters the school sought to have him work within next year -- namely defer much of his responsibility to coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher.

    ESPNsoccernet 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Refed in reverse.

    November 2, 2007