unnecessary delay

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable or uncountable

   A wait or postponement that could have been avoided and serves no useful purpose.

   Grammar: Countable for one specific wait (a delay of two hours); uncountable when you talk about the problem in general (avoid unnecessary delay).

   Patterns

   • cause unnecessary delay
   • without unnecessary delay
   • an unnecessary delay in something
   • unnecessary delays to something

   The broken printer caused unnecessary delay in sending out the invoices.

   Please reply without unnecessary delay, as the offer ends on Friday.

   Passengers complained about unnecessary delays at the security checkpoint.

2. 2nouncountable or uncountableformallaw

   A situation in which a process, especially a legal or official one, takes longer than it should.

   Grammar: Often appears in legal phrases such as 'without unnecessary delay' after a verb like 'proceed' or 'act.'

   Patterns

   • act without unnecessary delay
   • proceed without unnecessary delay
   • unnecessary delay in a case

   The court ordered the agency to release the documents without unnecessary delay.

   Any unnecessary delay in the trial may harm the witnesses' memory.

Common combinations

cause unnecessary delay

A missing signature can cause unnecessary delay in the whole process.

without unnecessary delay

The committee must decide without unnecessary delay.

an unnecessary delay in

There was an unnecessary delay in approving the plans.

avoid unnecessary delay

We changed the system to avoid unnecessary delay at check-in.

unnecessary delays to

Bad weather brought unnecessary delays to the building work.

Synonyms and how they differ

hold-up

Informal and usually about a physical or practical blockage, like traffic or a broken machine.

setback

Suggests progress is reversed, not just slowed, so it is stronger than a delay.

wait

Simply the time spent waiting; it does not suggest that the wait was avoidable.

Opposites

Word family

delay verb

To make something happen later than planned.

delayed adjective

Happening later than expected, as in a delayed flight.

Commonly confused: unnecessary delay or unnecessary wait?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “unnecessary delay”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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