Word of the Day

Friday, August 27, 1999

dilatory

\DIL-uh-tor-ee\ , adjective;

Tending to put off what ought to be done at once; given to procrastination.

Marked by procrastination or delay; intended to cause delay; -- said of actions or measures.

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Quotes:

I am inclined to be dilatory, and if I had not enjoyed extraordinary luck in life and love I might have been living with my mother at that very moment, doing nothing.

-- Carroll O'Connor, I Think I'm Outta Here

And what is a slumlord? He is not a man who own expensive property in fashionable neighborhoods, but one who owns only rundown property in the slums, where the rents are lowest and the where the payment is most dilatory, erratic and undependable.

-- Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson

Origin:

Dilatory is from Latin dilatorius, from dilator, "a dilatory person, a loiterer," from dilatus, past participle of differre, "to delay, to put off," from dis-, "apart, in different directions" + ferre, "to carry."