Delay, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Delayed; p. pr. & vb. n. Delaying.]
Etymology: [OF. deleer, delaier, fr. the noun délai, or directly fr. L. dilatare to enlarge, dilate, in LL., to put off. See Delay, n., and cf. Delate, 1st Defer, Dilate.]
1. To put off; to defer; to procrastinate; to prolong the time of or before. My lord delayeth his coming. Matt. xxiv. 48.
2. To retard; to stop, detain, or hinder, for a time; to retard the motion, or time of arrival, of; as, the mail is delayed by a heavy fall of snow. Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal. Milton.
3. To allay; to temper. [Obs.] The watery showers delay the raging wind. Surrey.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Delay, n.; pl. Delays.
A putting off or deferring; procrastination; lingering inactivity; stop; detention; hindrance. Without any delay, on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat. Acts xxv. 17. The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day. Macaulay.
Delay, v. i.
To move slowly; to stop for a time; to linger; to tarry. There seem to be certain bounds to the quickness and slowness of the succession of those ideas, . . . beyond which they can neither delay nor hasten. Locke.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for delay; he lists it under hinder, protract.
Where he writes about it:
We defer a negotiation which we are slow to enter upon; we protract a negotiation which we are slow to conclude; delay may be used of any stage in the proceedings; we may delay a person as well as an action, but defer and protract are not used of persons. — from protract
One may defer, delay, or postpone a matter intelligently and for good reason; he procrastinates through indolence and irresolution. — from protract