defer Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb hold back to a later time
    prorogue; set back; remit; put off; put over; shelve; table; postpone; hold over.
    • let's postpone the exam
  2. verb yield to another's wish or opinion
    give in; accede; submit; bow.
    • The government bowed to the military pressure

WordNet

De*fer" transitive verb
Etymology
OE. differren, F. différer, fr. L. differre to delay, bear different ways; dis- + ferre to bear. See Bear to support, and cf. Differ, Defer to offer.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Deferred ; present participle & verbal noun Deferring
Definitions
  1. To put off; to postpone to a future time; to delay the execution of; to delay; to withhold.
    Defer the spoil of the city until night. Shak.
    God . . . will not long defer To vindicate the glory of his name. Milton.
De*fer" intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To put off; to delay to act; to wait.
    Pius was able to defer and temporize at leisure. J. A. Symonds.
De*fer" transitive verb
Etymology
F. déférer to pay deference, to yield, to bring before a judge, fr. L. deferre to bring down; de- + ferre to bear. See Bear to support, and cf. Defer to delay, Delate.
Definitions
  1. To render or offer. Obs.
    Worship deferred to the Virgin. Brevint.
  2. To lay before; to submit in a respectful manner; to refer; -- with to.
    Hereupon the commissioners . . . deferred the matter to the Earl of Northumberland. Bacon.
De*fer" intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To yield deference to the wishes of another; to submit to the opinion of another, or to authority; -- with to.
    The house, deferring to legal right, acquiesced. Bancroft.

Webster 1913