Meaning & use
delay
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To make something happen later than planned or expected.
Grammar: Takes an object: delay the meeting.
Patterns
- delay something
- delay doing something
The airline delayed the flight because of bad weather.
They decided to delay the wedding until next year.
Don't delay your decision any longer.
verbintransitive
To be slow in doing something; to fail to act promptly.
Grammar: No object; often used with 'in' or 'on'.
Patterns
- delay in doing something
- delay on something
She delayed in answering the letter.
The government delayed on the new policy.
He delayed too long and missed the opportunity.
nouncountable or uncountable
A period of time by which something is made later than expected; the act of delaying.
Grammar: Can be countable (a delay) or uncountable (without delay).
Patterns
- a delay of + time
- without delay
- cause a delay
There was a delay of two hours before the train arrived.
Please respond without delay.
The project suffered several delays.
Word forms
| third person singular | delays |
|---|---|
| past tense | delayed |
| past participle | delayed |
| -ing form | delaying |
| plural | delays |
Common combinations
- delay a flight
- Fog can delay a flight for hours.
- without delay
- The doctor said to take the medicine without delay.
- cause a delay
- The accident caused a long delay on the highway.
- delay in doing something
- There was a delay in processing the application.
Synonyms and how they differ
- postpone
- Postpone means to change an event to a later time or date; delay often suggests an unexpected or unwanted lateness.
- defer
- Defer is more formal and often implies putting something off until a later time, sometimes intentionally.
- hold up
- Hold up is informal and often means to cause a delay, especially in traffic or progress.
Opposites
Word family
- delayed adjective
- Happening later than planned or expected.
- delaying adjective
- Causing something to be late or slow.
Commonly confused: delay or relay?
delay vs relay
Relay means to pass something on or a race where people take turns; delay means to make late.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence:
Choose one answer.
When stating the length of a delay, use 'by': 'delayed by an hour.' 'For an hour' could mean the delay lasted that long, but 'by' is the standard preposition for the amount of lateness.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “delay”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.