deferde‧fer /dɪˈfɜː $ -ˈfɜːr/ ●○○ verb (past tense and past participle deferred, present participle deferring) [transitive] 
Further discussion on the proposal will be deferred until April. The committee deferred their decision.► see thesaurus at delay—deferment noun [countable, uncountable]—deferral noun [countable, uncountable]defer to somebody/something phrasal verb formal to agree to accept someone’s opinion or decision because you have respect for that person: I will defer to your wishes.
WORD ORIGINdefer
Origin:
1300-1400 French différer, from Latin differre ‘to delay, be different’. defer to 1400-1500 French déférer, from Late Latin deferre ‘to bring down’VERB TABLE
defer
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | defer |
| he, she, it | defers | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | deferred |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have deferred |
| he, she, it | has deferred | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had deferred |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will defer |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have deferred |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am deferring |
| he, she, it | is deferring | |
| you, we, they | are deferring | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was deferring |
| you, we, they | were deferring | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been deferring |
| he, she, it | has been deferring | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been deferring |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be deferring |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been deferring |
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- College loan payments are deferred until students finish their degrees.
- Eventually the committee agreed to defer a decision to see if the school could team up with neighbouring villages to boost numbers.
- For those voters' sakes, important decisions like this one should be deferred.
- He deferred admission to Stanford medical school and set about taking three seconds off his 200 time.
- He expected to die, but the expectation was always of something remote, deferred.
- Macmillan then deployed a favourite tactic: he deferred the final decision till a later meeting of the Cabinet.
- That, his day's toil having been deferred, he wanders through unfamiliar woods with unsure footsteps.
- The punishment was deferred until after her baby was born.
- With words he defers, with a football he crushes and wrecks.
THESAURUS
to wait until a later time to do something: · He decided to delay his decision until he had seen the full report.
to change an event to a later time or date: · The meeting was postponed.
to delay doing something. Put off is less formal than delay or postpone, and is the usual phrase to use in everyday English: · I used to put off making difficult decisions.· The game has been put off till next week.
to delay doing something, especially while you are waiting for more information or for something else to happen: · House buyers seem to be holding off until interest rates drop.
formal to delay doing something until a later date, usually because something else needs to happen first: · The decision had been deferred until after a meeting of the directors.· She decided to defer her university application for a year so that she could go travelling.
formal to delay doing something that you ought to do: · Don’t procrastinate – make a start on your assignments as soon as you get them.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY The committee deferred their decision.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB
to delay something until a later date SYN put backdefer something until/to something The committee deferred their decision.· I don't want to be positioned as some one who they have to defer to.
NOUN· He unsuccessfully proposed a decision be deferred to allow further consultation with the disabled.
· Then he suggested maybe tax cuts could be deferred until a balanced budget could be agreed to.
VERB· Insiders may decide to defer public disclosure so that they may first build up a position in the relevant shares.· For these reasons, the Council has decided to defer the matter for three years.
Further discussion on the proposal will be deferred until April. The committee deferred their decision.► see thesaurus at delay—deferment noun [countable, uncountable]—deferral noun [countable, uncountable]defer to somebody/something phrasal verb formal to agree to accept someone’s opinion or decision because you have respect for that person: I will defer to your wishes.