Retain vs Delay - What's the difference?
retain | delay | Related terms |
To keep in possession or use.
* Milton
* 1856 : (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
, title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=1 To keep in one's pay or service.
* Addison
To employ by paying a retainer.
To hold secure.
(obsolete) To restrain; to prevent.
(obsolete) To belong; to pertain.
* Boyle
To put off until a later time; to defer.
* Bible, (w) xxiv. 48
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)
A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
* Bible, Acts xxv. 17
* Macaulay
(obsolete) To dilute, temper.
(obsolete) To assuage, quench, allay.
* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.12:
Retain is a related term of delay.
In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between retain and delay
is that retain is (obsolete) to belong; to pertain while delay is (obsolete) to assuage, quench, allay.As verbs the difference between retain and delay
is that retain is to keep in possession or use while delay is to put off until a later time; to defer or delay can be (obsolete) to dilute, temper.As a noun delay is
a period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.retain
English
Verb
(en verb)- Be obedient, and retain / Unalterably firm his love entire.
- A strange thing was that Bovary, while continually thinking of Emma, was forgetting her. He grew desperate as he felt this image fading from his memory in spite of all efforts to retain it. Yet every night he dreamt of her; it was always the same dream. He drew near her, but when he was about to clasp her she fell into decay in his arms.
citation, passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}
- A Benedictine convent has now retained the most learned father of their order to write in its defence.
- A somewhat languid relish, retaining to bitterness.
Synonyms
* keepAnagrams
* *delay
English
(wikipedia delay)Etymology 1
From (etyl) . More at let (to hinder), late, leave.Verb
(en verb)- My lord delayeth his coming.
- The watery showers delay the raging wind.
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . SeeSynonyms
* See also * adjourn * defer * forslow * postpone * put off * put on ice * suspendNoun
(en noun)- the delay before the echo of a sound
- Without any delay , on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat.
- The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- Those dreadfull flames she also found delayd / And quenched quite like a consumed torch […].