time during which some action is awaited
"instant replay caused too long a delay"
"he ordered a hold in the action"
A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
"The unexpected rain caused a significant delay to our departure, leaving us stranded at the station for hours."
In plain English: A delay is when something happens later than it was supposed to.
"The heavy traffic caused a significant delay to our morning commute."
Usage: Use "delay" as a noun to describe a specific period of waiting or a setback that keeps an event from happening on schedule. It refers to the actual time lost due to inactivity, not the action of causing the wait itself.
act later than planned, scheduled, or required
"Don't delay your application to graduate school or else it won't be considered"
To put off until a later time; to defer.
"Adding a splash of water to the strong coffee helps delay its bitterness until it's more palatable."
To dilute, temper.
In plain English: To delay something means to make it happen later than planned.
"The heavy traffic will delay our arrival by an hour."
Usage: When used as a verb in its most common sense, delay means to make something late or cause it to happen later than planned. Do not use this word to mean "dilute" or "temper," which are incorrect definitions for this specific usage.
A surname.
"Mr. Delay was late to the meeting, but his father insisted it was just a coincidence of having two men in our family with that same name."
The word delay comes from Old French and originally meant "to let go" or "leave behind." It entered English through Anglo-Norman as a conflation of two Germanic roots related to leaving or staying put.