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Defer vs Protract - What's the difference?

defer | protract | Related terms |

Defer is a related term of protract.


As verbs the difference between defer and protract

is that defer is to delay or postpone; especially to postpone induction into military service or defer can be (legal) to submit to the opinion or desire of another in respect to their judgment or authority while protract is to draw out; to extend, especially in duration.

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.
    • Related terms
    * differ
    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

    * * ----

    protract

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To draw out; to extend, especially in duration.
  • *2010 , (Christopher Hitchens), ‘The Men Who Made England’, The Atlantic , Mar 2010:
  • *:Still, form these extraordinary pages you can learn that it's very bad to be burned alive on a windy day, because the breeze will keep flicking the flames away from you and thus protract the process.
  • To use a protractor.
  • (surveying) To draw to a scale; to lay down the lines and angles of, with scale and protractor; to plot.
  • To put off to a distant time; to delay; to defer.
    • to protract a decision or duty
    (Shakespeare)
  • To extend; to protrude.
    • A cat can protract and retract its claws.

    Synonyms

    * (to draw out) prolong

    Derived terms

    * protractile