All 22 Uses of
defer
in
Middlemarch
- He has deferred to me, you not being of age.†
Chpt 1
- Why should she defer the answer?†
Chpt 1 *
- Something might be done perhaps even now, at least to defer the marriage.†
Chpt 1
- "He might keep shape long enough to defer the marriage," said Sir James.†
Chpt 1
- Mrs. Waule had to defer her answer till he was quiet again, till Mary Garth had supplied him with fresh syrup, and he had begun to rub the gold knob of his stick, looking bitterly at the fire.†
Chpt 1
- "Fred, pray defer your practising till to-morrow; you will make Mr. Lydgate ill," said Rosamond.†
Chpt 2
- Some weeks passed after this conversation before the question of the chaplaincy gathered any practical import for Lydgate, and without telling himself the reason, he deferred the predetermination on which side he should give his vote.†
Chpt 2
- In fact, it is probable that but for Mary's existence and Fred's love for her, his conscience would have been much less active both in previously urging the debt on his thought and impelling him not to spare himself after his usual fashion by deferring an unpleasant task, but to act as directly and simply as he could.†
Chpt 3
- It had occurred to him that he must not any longer defer his intention of matrimony, and he had reflected that in taking a wife, a man of good position should expect and carefully choose a blooming young lady—the younger the better, because more educable and submissive—of a rank equal to his own, of religious principles, virtuous disposition, and good understanding.†
Chpt 3
- Even drawing Dorothea into use in his study, according to his own intention before marriage, was an effort which he was always tempted to defer, and but for her pleading insistence it might never have begun.†
Chpt 3
- This was really an argument for not deferring the marriage too long, as he implied to Mr. Farebrother, one day that the Vicar came to his room with some pond-products which he wanted to examine under a better microscope than his own, and, finding Lydgate's tableful of apparatus and specimens in confusion, said sarcastically— "Eros has degenerated; he began by introducing order and harmony, and now he brings back chaos."†
Chpt 4
- "Why should we defer it?" he said, with ardent insistence.†
Chpt 4
- She was thinking of her evening dresses for the visit to Sir Godwin Lydgate's, which she had long been secretly hoping for as a delightful employment of at least one quarter of the honeymoon, even if she deferred her introduction to the uncle who was a doctor of divinity (also a pleasing though sober kind of rank, when sustained by blood).†
Chpt 4
- Of course it was unnecessary to defer the mention of anything to mamma, who did not readily take views that were not cheerful, and being a happy wife herself, had hardly any feeling but pride in her daughter's marriage.†
Chpt 4
- I have deferred it too long,
Chpt 5 *deferred = postponed (delayed until a later time)
- "I was going home," he said, "but I can defer my ride a little.†
Chpt 5
- Perhaps Lydgate and she had never felt so far off each other before; but there were strong reasons for not deferring his revelation, even if he had not already begun it by that abrupt announcement; indeed some of the angry desire to rouse her into more sensibility on his account which had prompted him to speak prematurely, still mingled with his pain in the prospect of her pain.†
Chpt 6
- Hence he replied that he had reasons for deferring his departure a little, and would be happy to go to the sale.†
Chpt 6
- And when she put the moderate request that he would defer going to Trumbull again, it was cruel in him not to assure her of what he meant to do.†
Chpt 7
- He deferred the intention from day to day, his habit of acting on his conclusions being made infirm by his repugnance to every possible conclusion and its consequent act.†
Chpt 7
- He continually deferred the final steps; in the midst of his fears, like many a man who is in danger of shipwreck or of being dashed from his carriage by runaway horses, he had a clinging impression that something would happen to hinder the worst, and that to spoil his life by a late transplantation might be over-hasty—especially since it was difficult to account satisfactorily to his wife for the project of their indefinite exile from the only place where she would like to live.†
Chpt 7
- Not so fast, sir; how do you know that I would not rather defer our marriage for some years?†
Chpt 8
Definitions:
-
(defer as in: deferred the decision) delay or postpone (hold off until a later time)
-
(defer as in: deferred to her wishes) submit or yield (typically to another person's opinion because of respect for that person or their knowledge)