delaying

Pluraldelayings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of delay.

   The committee is delaying the vote until next month.

   Delaying repairs on the bridge proved costly in the end.

   Note

   One spelling does two grammatical jobs. After a form of be it builds the progressive (the committee is delaying the vote). On its own it heads a noun phrase (delaying repairs proved costly). It usually takes an object, meaning to put off or to hold up. Without one it means to hesitate or tarry. The old meaning 'to allay or temper' is obsolete, so a modern sentence will not carry it.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   An instance of postponement; a holdup that pushes something to a later time than planned.

   The repeated delaying of the verdict angered the public.

   Such a delaying of payment puts the small supplier at real risk.

   Similarpostponement, deferral, holdup

   Note

   Unlike the verb's gerund, this is a true countable noun: it takes a plural and an adjective. Roger North's The Lives of the Right Hon. Francis North (1826) lists 'speedings, delayings' among a lawsuit's costly interlocutory steps. Reginald Farrer's In a Yorkshire Garden (1909) dismisses 'cowardly delayings'. The plural suggests repeated, drawn-out putting-off, while a single holdup is more naturally just a delay.

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