From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdeferde‧fer /dɪˈfɜː $ -ˈfɜːr/ ●○○ verb (deferred, deferring) [transitive] POSTPONE/DO LATERto delay something until a later date SYN put backdefer something until/to something 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→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
defer• For those voters' sakes, important decisions like this one should be deferred.• He expected to die, but the expectation was always of something remote, deferred.• Eventually the committee agreed to defer a decision to see if the school could team up with neighbouring villages to boost numbers.• He deferred admission to Stanford medical school and set about taking three seconds off his 200 time.• That, his day's toil having been deferred, he wanders through unfamiliar woods with unsure footsteps.• Macmillan then deployed a favourite tactic: he deferred the final decision till a later meeting of the Cabinet.• The punishment was deferred until after her baby was born.• College loan payments are deferred until students finish their degrees.• With words he defers, with a football he crushes and wrecks.deferred ... decision• The executive deferred a decision on Craxi's future until mid-January.• Macmillan then deployed a favourite tactic: he deferred the final decision till a later meeting of the Cabinet.• The committee had previously deferred a decision while it sought the views of the police.From Longman Business Dictionarydeferde‧fer /dɪˈfɜː-ˈfɜːr/ verb (deferred, deferring) [transitive] to delay something until a later time or dateThe president may defer decisions on future defense spending cuts.Further discussion on the proposal will be deferred until April.→ See Verb tableOrigin defer (1300-1400) French différer, from Latin differre “to delay, be different”. defer to (1400-1500) French déférer, from Late Latin deferre “to bring down” 