Defer

WORD OF THE DAY

defer / verb / dih-FER

Definition
1: put off, delay
2: to postpone induction of (a person) into military service
3: to delegate to another
4: to submit to another's wishes, opinion, or governance usually through deference or respect

Examples
“... lack of access to regular mortgage lending forces our clients to turn to predatory alternative lending and rent-to-own schemes or defer making needed repairs to their aging homes.”
— Rachel Labush and Michael Froehlich, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 Aug. 2022

Backers say the arrangement will make patients more cost-conscious and judicious in their use of medical service, thus restraining health-cost increases; critics say it will cause patients to defer needed treatment and will be attractive only to younger, healthier workers.
— Wall Street Journal, 9 Jan. 2006

Did You Know?
There are two distinct words spelled defer in English, each with its own history and meaning. The defer having to do with allowing someone else to decide or choose something, or with agreeing to follow someone else’s decision, tradition, etc., (as in “He deferred to his parents’ wishes”) comes from the Latin verb dēferre, meaning “to bring down, convey, transfer, submit.”
The defer synonymous with delay comes from Latin differre, which itself has several meanings, including two that resound in its English descendant: “to postpone” and “to delay.”
Another meaning of differre is “to be unlike or distinct,” which makes apparent another of its descendants: differ, meaning “to be different.”