Meaning & use
defer to someone
Last updated
Meanings
phrasephrasal verb
To let another person's opinion or decision win over your own because you respect their knowledge or position.
Grammar: Always followed by to and a person or body: defer to the expert, not defer the expert.
Patterns
- defer to someone
- defer to someone on something
- defer to someone's judgment
I usually defer to my sister on money matters because she is an accountant.
The junior doctors deferred to the senior surgeon during the operation.
He deferred to his wife when choosing the paint color.
phrasephrasal verb
To yield politely to someone out of courtesy, rather than from weak will or fear.
Grammar: Often in a social setting: defer to guests, defer to elders.
Patterns
- defer to someone out of respect
The team deferred to the guest speaker and let her go first.
Out of politeness, she deferred to her elders at the family meeting.
He deferred to the host's choice of restaurant.
Word forms
| third person singular | defers to someone |
|---|---|
| past tense | deferred to someone |
| past participle | deferred to someone |
| -ing form | deferring to someone |
Common combinations
- defer to expertise
- In a crisis, the board deferred to expertise rather than politics.
- defer to someone's judgment
- I will defer to your judgment, since you know the client.
- defer to authority
- Children are often taught to defer to authority.
- defer to the majority
- The committee agreed to defer to the majority.
- willingly defer to
- Most of us willingly defer to the pilot during a storm.
Synonyms and how they differ
- yield to
- Yield to is broader and can mean giving way under pressure, while defer to implies respect for the other person's judgment.
- submit to
- Submit to suggests giving in to power or force, which is stronger and less respectful than defer to.
- bow to
- Bow to often suggests reluctant acceptance, whereas defer to sounds calmer and more voluntary.
- go along with
- Go along with is casual and may mean simple agreement, while defer to specifically credits the other person with better judgment.
Opposites
Word family
- deference noun
- polite respect for another's opinion or rank
- deferential adjective
- showing respect by yielding
- deferentially adverb
- in a respectful, yielding way
Commonly confused: defer to someone or defer (to a later time)? defer to someone or differ?
defer to someone vs defer (to a later time)
The verb defer without to means to postpone, as in defer payment. Defer to someone means to yield to them.
defer to someone vs differ
Differ means to be unlike or disagree, which is nearly the opposite of defer to someone.
Practice
On legal questions, the manager always ____ the company lawyer.
Choose one answer.
Defer needs the preposition to when it means accepting someone's judgment. Defers alone means postpones and would need an object like a decision.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “defer to someone”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.