INDEX:
1. to make someone or something arrive late
2. to make something happen later or take longer than it should
3. to deliberately delay someone or something
4. a situation in which someone or something is delayed
RELATED WORDS
arrange to do something later than planned : ↑ LATER
see also
↑ LATE
↑ LATER
↑ CANCEL
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1. to make someone or something arrive late
▷ be delayed /biː dɪˈleɪd/ [verb phrase]
to make someone or something late - use this especially about a problem or something unexpected :
▪ Mr Evans has been delayed but will be joining us shortly.
▪ Our plane was delayed by fog.
▪ I mustn’t delay you any longer.
get delayed
▪ There was an accident on the freeway and we got delayed.
▷ make somebody late /ˌmeɪk somebody ˈleɪt/ [verb phrase not in passive]
to delay someone or something so that they arrive somewhere late :
make sb late for
▪ The accident made us late for work.
▪ I’ll let you go - I don’t want to make you late for your appointment.
make somebody late doing something
▪ Catching a later train made Frank late getting to the office.
▷ hold up /ˌhəʊld ˈʌp/ [transitive phrasal verb]
to make someone or something stop or go more slowly when they are going somewhere :
hold somebody up
▪ I won’t hold you up - I can see you’re in a hurry.
hold up somebody/something
▪ Get a move on, you two! You’re holding up the whole queue!
be/get held up
▪ We got held up in traffic and missed the show.
▷ keep /kiːp/ [transitive verb not in passive] informal
to delay someone when they are trying to go somewhere :
▪ He should be here by now. What’s keeping him?
▷ detain /dɪˈteɪn/ [transitive verb] formal
to delay someone, especially by keeping them talking or working :
▪ I won’t detain you for much longer, Miss Reid. There are just a few more questions that I need to ask you.
be unavoidably detained
by something that you cannot prevent
▪ Mr Jones should be here, but I’m afraid he’s been unavoidably detained.
2. to make something happen later or take longer than it should
▷ delay /dɪˈleɪ/ [transitive verb usually in passive]
to make something happen later than it should, or take longer than it should :
▪ The President’s visit had to be delayed because of security problems.
▪ This latest terrorist attack is bound to delay the peace talks even further.
delay by
▪ The plane’s departure was delayed by mechanical problems.
be delayed for 5 hours/2 months etc
▪ The opening of the new bridge may be delayed for several months.
▷ hold up /ˌhəʊld ˈʌp/ [transitive phrasal verb]
to make something happen late, or make it happen more slowly than it should :
hold up something
▪ Protesters held up work on the new road.
be held up by something
▪ The peace talks are being held up by continued fighting on the border.
hold somebody/something up
▪ They should have finished that job on Friday - what’s holding them up?
▪ Her stubbornness on this one issue is holding the whole deal up.
▷ set back also put back British /ˌset ˈbæk, ˌpʊt ˈbæk/ [transitive phrasal verb]
to delay the progress or development of something by a number of weeks, months etc :
set somebody/something etc back
▪ Your mistake has set us back several weeks.
▪ The Transportation Department first announced that the expressway would be completed by 2002, but it has since set the timetable back.
set back somebody/something
▪ The start date kept being put back, for a variety of reasons.
▷ get bogged down /get ˌbɒgd ˈdaʊnǁ-ˌbɑːgd-/ [verb phrase] informal
if a person or planned piece of work gets bogged down, they are delayed and prevented from continuing because of complicated or difficult problems :
get bogged down in
▪ The project got bogged down in a series of legal disputes.
get bogged down by
▪ Keep the document simple and avoid getting bogged down by complicated formatting.
3. to deliberately delay someone or something
▷ stall /stɔːl/ [intransitive/transitive verb]
to deliberately delay doing something, or to deliberately stop someone else from doing something until a later time, either because you are not ready or to give yourself an advantage :
▪ Quit stalling and tell me where she is.
▪ I’m not ready to talk to him yet - go out there and see if you can stall him.
▪ City officials have slowed the development by stalling building permits for the area.
▷ play for time /ˌpleɪ fəʳ ˈtaɪm/ [verb phrase]
to deliberately try to delay doing something or making a decision, because you are not ready or want more time to think about it :
▪ Stop playing for time and give us an answer.
▪ The rebel’s current ceasefire doesn’t amount to much more than playing for time.
▷ delaying tactics /dɪˈleɪ-ɪŋ ˌtæktɪks/ [plural noun]
methods used, especially by politicians, in order to delay a plan or decision so that something can be done during the delay :
▪ Some politicians are prepared to use delaying tactics to block the bill.
▪ The peace negotiations were being held up by the delaying tactics of France and Great Britain.
▷ procrastinate /prəˈkræstɪneɪt, prəˈkræstəneɪt/ [intransitive verb]
to delay doing something that you ought to do, usually because you do not want to do it - used especially to show disapproval :
▪ He hesitated and procrastinated for weeks before he finally told her he wanted their relationship to end.
procrastinate about/over
▪ Certain players are procrastinating over their contracts in order to see how much money they can squeeze out of their clubs.
procrastination /prəˌkræstɪˈneɪʃ ə n/ [uncountable noun]
▪ She finally agreed to take the job after months of procrastination.
4. a situation in which someone or something is delayed
▷ delay /dɪˈleɪ/ [countable/uncountable noun]
when someone or something is delayed :
▪ Any delay in the production process is costly to a company.
long delay
▪ The strike is causing long delays at the airport
three months’/several weeks’ etc delay
▪ After three months’ delay, work finally began on the new building.
delay in doing something
▪ There have been a lot of complaints about delays in issuing passports.
▷ hold-up/holdup /ˈhəʊld ʌp/ [countable noun]
a delay, especially one caused by an unexpected problem, that interrupts a journey or a piece of work :
▪ An accident on the London-Brighton road has caused a major hold-up.
▪ There’s been a hold-up with the builders, so the new office won’t be ready for several months.
▷ bottleneck /ˈbɒtlnekǁˈbɑː-/ [countable noun]
a delay in one stage of a process that stops making progress and makes the whole process take longer :
▪ There’s always going to be a bottleneck because only two people review all the applications.
▪ If we don’t hire more people in production we’re going to have a huge bottleneck in a few months.