What is the difference between wait and defer?
wait | defer |
To delay movement or action until the arrival or occurrence of; to await. (Now generally superseded by "wait for".)
* Dryden
* 1992 , (Hilary Mantel), A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p. 30:
To delay movement or action until some event or time; to remain neglected or in readiness.
* (John Milton)
* (John Dryden)
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4
, passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait .}}
(US) To wait tables; to serve customers in a restaurant or other eating establishment.
(obsolete) To attend on; to accompany; especially, to attend with ceremony or respect.
* Dryden
* Rowe
(obsolete) To attend as a consequence; to follow upon; to accompany.
(obsolete) To defer or postpone (a meal).
A delay.
An ambush.
* Milton
(obsolete) One who watches; a watchman.
(in the plural, obsolete, UK) Hautboys, or oboes, played by town musicians.
(in the plural, archaic, UK) Musicians who sing or play at night or in the early morning, especially at Christmas time; serenaders; musical watchmen. [formerly waites, wayghtes.]
* (rfdate)
* (rfdate)
To delay or postpone; especially to postpone induction into military service.
* Shakespeare
* {{quote-book
, year=1818
, author=Mary Shelley
, title=Frankenstein
, chapter=3
to delay, to wait
* Milton
(American football) to choose to kick off after winning the opening coin toss.
(legal) To submit to the opinion or desire of another in respect to their judgment or authority.
* Francis Bacon
* 1899 ,
to render, to offer
* Brevint
In intransitive terms the difference between wait and defer
is that wait is to delay movement or action until some event or time; to remain neglected or in readiness while defer is to delay, to wait.As verbs the difference between wait and defer
is that wait is to delay movement or action until the arrival or occurrence of; to await. (Now generally superseded by "wait for". while defer is to delay or postpone; especially to postpone induction into military service.As a noun wait
is a delay.wait
English
Alternative forms
* (l)Verb
(en verb)- Awed with these words, in camps they still abide, / And wait with longing looks their promised guide.
- The Court had assembled, to wait events, in the huge antechamber known as the Œil de Boeuf.
- They also serve who only stand and wait .
- Haste, my dear father; 'tis no time to wait .
- He chose a thousand horse, the flower of all / His warlike troops, to wait the funeral.
- Remorse and heaviness of heart shall wait thee, / And everlasting anguish be thy portion.
- to wait dinner
Usage notes
* In sense 1, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
* (delay until event) hold one's breathDerived terms
* can't wait * wait staff * wait state * wait for * wait on * wait tables * waiter * waiting room * waitperson * waitress * waitronNoun
(en noun)- I had a very long wait at the airport security check.
- They laid in wait for the patrol.
- an enemy in wait
- (Halliwell)
- Hark! are the waits abroad?
- The sound of the waits , rude as may be their minstrelsy, breaks upon the mild watches of a winter night with the effect of perfect harmony.
Statistics
*defer
English
Etymology 1
* From (etyl) differer, from (etyl) .Verb
(deferr)- Defer the spoil of the city until night.
citation, passage=My departure for Ingolstadt, which had been deferred by these events, was now again determined upon.}}
- God will not long defer / To vindicate the glory of his name.
Derived terms
* deferralEtymology 2
* From (etyl)Verb
(deferr)- Hereupon the commissioners deferred the matter to the Earl of Northumberland.
- "Well, I must defer to your judgment. You are captain," he said with marked civility.
- worship deferred to the Virgin