Delay vs Rot - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between delay and rot

is that delay is a period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity while rot is meat roasted on a spit.

As a verb delay

is to put off until a later time; to defer or delay can be (obsolete) to dilute, temper.

delay

English

(wikipedia delay)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) . More at let (to hinder), late, leave.

Verb

(en verb)

To put off until a later time; to defer.

* Bible, (w) xxiv. 48

My lord delayeth his coming.

To retard; to stop, detain, or hinder, for a time.

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=10 , passage=Mr. Cooke had had a sloop?yacht built at Far Harbor, the completion of which had been delayed , and which was but just delivered. […] The Maria had a cabin, which was finished in hard wood and yellow plush, and accommodations for keeping things cold.}}

(label) To allay; to temper.

* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

The watery showers delay the raging wind.

Usage notes

* This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See

Synonyms

* See also * adjourn * defer * forslow * postpone * put off * put on ice * suspend

Noun

(en noun)

A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.

the delay before the echo of a sound

* Bible, Acts xxv. 17

Without any delay , on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat.

* Macaulay

The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day.

Etymology 2

From (etyl) .

Verb

(en verb)

(obsolete) To dilute, temper.

(obsolete) To assuage, quench, allay.

* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.12:

Those dreadfull flames she also found delayd / And quenched quite like a consumed torch […].

External links

* *

Anagrams

* *

rot

English

Verb

(rott)

To suffer decomposition due to biological action, especially by fungi or bacteria.

* Alexander Pope

Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot, / To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot .

To decline in function or utility.

To deteriorate in any way.

I hope they all rot in prison for what they've done.

* Macaulay

Four of the sufferers were left to rot in irons.

* Thackeray

Rot , poor bachelor, in your club.

To make putrid; to cause to be wholly or partially decomposed by natural processes.

to rot vegetable fiber

To expose, as flax, to a process of maceration, etc., for the purpose of separating the fiber; to ret.

Derived terms

* potter's rot

Noun

(en noun)

The process of becoming rotten; putrefaction.

Any of several diseases in which breakdown of tissue occurs.

* Milton

His cattle must of rot and murrain die.

Verbal nonsense.

Synonyms

* (nonsense) See also

Anagrams

* (l), (l), (l), (l), (l), (l), (l) English intransitive verbs ----