Word of the Day

: April 30, 2009

dilatory

adjective DILL-uh-tor-ee

What It Means

1 : tending or intended to cause delay

2 : characterized by procrastination : tardy

dilatory in Context

The Senator's seemingly endless motions to adjourn were clearly dilatory.

Did You Know?

Slow down. Set a leisurely pace. What's the hurry? If procrastination is your style, "dilatory" is the word for you. That term has been used in English to describe things that cause delay since at least the 15th century, and its ancestors were hanging around with similar meanings long before that. If you take the time to trace the roots of "dilatory," you will discover that it derives from "dilatus," the past participle of the Latin verb "differre," which meant either "to postpone" or "to differ." If you think "differre" looks like several English words, you have a discerning eye. That verb is also an ancestor of the words "different" and "defer."