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/dˈɪlətˌɔri/ Listen

adjective

Dilatory adj.

Inclined to defer or put off what ought to be done at once; given the procrastination; delaying; procrastinating; loitering; as, a dilatory servant.

Marked by procrastination or delay; tardy; slow; sluggish; said of actions or measures. "Alva, as usual, brought his dilatory policy to bear upon his adversary."

Dilatory plea (Law), a plea designed to create delay in the trial of a cause, generally founded upon some matter not connected with the merits of the case.

Synonyms: Slow; delaying; sluggish; inactive; loitering; behindhand; backward; procrastinating. See Slow.

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Etymology of 'Dilatory'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dilatory" Quotes from Famous Books

... heard other men complain that the Department is dilatory, not merely deliberate, and that it is often impossible to get an answer to a letter at all. There is a story told of a man who wrote offering his services as chaplain, wrote again after a decent interval, continued ...

— A Padre in France • George A. Birmingham

... last again gave her assent to the opinion which of all others was the most perilous for her to adopt. A new reference to the king in Spain was proposed; the next moment it was asserted that so urgent a crisis did not admit of so dilatory a remedy; it was necessary for the regent to act on her own responsibility, and either defy the threatening aspect of despair, or to yield to it by modifying or retracting the royal ordinance. She finally caused the annals of Brabant to be examined in order to discover if possible a ...

— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... arrived lately at Versailles, to solicit the French Court for Cannon and Ammunition, without which it wou'd be impossible for King James's Forces to become Masters in Ireland, but that the French were so dilatory in this Affair upon some Politick Views, that it was great Odds that Nation wou'd be quickly recover'd by King William's Forces. This was a misterious Insinuation to one of my small Experience, for my shallow Brain told me, Expedition was the Business of War; whereas I found afterwards it ...

— Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins (1718) • Daniel Defoe

... force, which had not even the advantage of fighting behind well-constructed and perfect defences. No doubt, from the beginning to the end of the war—notably in the case of Burgoyne—the British were seriously hampered by the dilatory and unsafe counsels of Lord George Germaine, who was allowed by the favour of the king to direct military operations, and who, we remember, had disgraced himself on the ...

— Canada under British Rule 1760-1900 • John G. Bourinot

... to accompany them, showing himself at intervals upon the heights at such a distance as not to be forced to fight against his will, and yet, from the very slowness of his movements, making the enemy fear that at every moment he was about to attack. By these dilatory manoeuvres he incurred general contempt, and was looked upon with disgust by his own soldiers, while the enemy, with the exception of one man, thought him utterly without warlike enterprise. That man was Hannibal himself. He alone perceived Fabius's true generalship and thorough comprehension ...

— Plutarch's Lives, Volume I (of 4) • Plutarch

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