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Cancel vs Defer - What's the difference?

cancel | defer |

In transitive terms the difference between cancel and defer

is that cancel is to offset or equalize something while defer is to delay or postpone; especially to postpone induction into military service.

In lang=en terms the difference between cancel and defer

is that cancel is to kill while defer is to submit to the opinion or desire of another in respect to their judgment or authority.

As a noun cancel

is a cancellation (US); (nonstandard in some kinds of English).

cancel

English

Alternative forms

* cancell (obsolete)

Verb

  • To cross out something with lines etc.
  • * Blackstone
  • A deed may be avoided by delivering it up to be cancelled ; that is, to have lines drawn over it in the form of latticework or cancelli; the phrase is now used figuratively for any manner of obliterating or defacing it.
  • To invalidate or annul something.
  • He cancelled his order on their website.
  • * 1914 , (Marjorie Benton Cooke), Bambi
  • *:"I don't know what your agreement was, Herr Professor, but if it had money in it, cancel it. I want him to learn that lesson, too."
  • To mark something (such as a used postage stamp) so that it can't be reused.
  • This machine cancels the letters that have a valid zip code.
  • To offset or equalize something.
  • The corrective feedback mechanism cancels out the noise.
  • (mathematics) To remove a common factor from both the numerator and denominator of a fraction, or from both sides of an equation.
  • (media) To stop production of a programme.
  • (printing, dated) To suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.
  • (obsolete) To shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude.
  • * Milton
  • cancelled from heaven
  • (slang) To kill.
  • Synonyms

    *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A cancellation (US ); (nonstandard in some kinds of English).
  • # (Internet) A control message posted to Usenet that serves to cancel a previously posted message.
  • (obsolete) An inclosure; a boundary; a limit.
  • A prison is but a retirement, and opportunity of serious thoughts, to a person whose spiritdesires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the body. — Jeremy Taylor.
  • (printing) The suppression on striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages.
  • defer

    English

    Etymology 1

    * From (etyl) differer, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (deferr)
  • To delay or postpone; especially to postpone induction into military service.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Defer the spoil of the city until night.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1818 , author=Mary Shelley , title=Frankenstein , chapter=3 citation , passage=My departure for Ingolstadt, which had been deferred by these events, was now again determined upon.}}
  • to delay, to wait
  • * Milton
  • God will not long defer / To vindicate the glory of his name.
  • (American football) to choose to kick off after winning the opening coin toss.
  • Derived terms
    * deferral

    Etymology 2

    * From (etyl)

    Verb

    (deferr)
  • (legal) To submit to the opinion or desire of another in respect to their judgment or authority.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Hereupon the commissioners deferred the matter to the Earl of Northumberland.
  • * 1899 ,
  • "Well, I must defer to your judgment. You are captain," he said with marked civility.
  • to render, to offer
  • * Brevint
  • worship deferred to the Virgin
    Derived terms
    * deference

    Anagrams

    * * ----