Dilatory
['dɪlət(ə)rɪ] or ['dɪlətɔri]
Definition
(a.) Inclined to defer or put off what ought to be done at once; given the procrastination; delaying; procrastinating; loitering; as, a dilatory servant.
(a.) Marked by procrastination or delay; tardy; slow; sluggish; -- said of actions or measures.
Editor: Louise
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Slow, tardy, lingering, loitering, sluggish, laggard, lagging, behindhand, backward, procrastinating.
Editor: Sweeney
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Tardy, procrastinating, slow, loitering, behindhand, lagging, dawdling
ANT:Quick, prompt, beforehand, vigilant, eager, alert, hasty, precipitate, rash,ardent
Typist: Nelly
Definition
adj. slow: given to procrastination: loitering: tending to delay.—adv. Dil′atorily.—n. Dil′atoriness.
Checker: Melva
Examples
- His family knew him to be, on all common occasions, a most negligent and dilatory correspondent; but at such a time they had hoped for exertion. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- His letter was soon dispatched; for, though dilatory in undertaking business, he was quick in its execution. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- I've got a complaint that makes me a little dilatory. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- In that case, I observed, we can quicken our march; why adhere to a plan whose dilatory proceeding you already disapprove? Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
Checker: Melva