defer

CEFRC1

/dɪˈfɜː/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To delay doing something until a later time.

  2. 02

    verb

    To accept someone else's opinion or decision.

Examples

  • Suppose then that we defer the marriage till the autumn.

  • I defer to your judgement.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Also pronounced

  • /dɪˈfeː/
  • /dɪˈfɛr/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. 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).

  2. To delay or postpone.

  3. To delay, to wait.

More examples

In context

  • We're going to defer the decision until we have all the facts.

  • My journey to Ingolstadt, which had been deferred by these events, was now again determined upon.

  • Deferre the ſpoile of the Citie vntill night:

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

We should blank making the final decision until we have more data.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

Originally a variant of (and hence a doublet of) differ; from Middle English differren (“to postpone”), from Old French differer, from Latin differō. Doublet of differ and dilate. See also infer, collate and confer, delate and defer, relate and refer as well as prelate and prefer among others.