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Definition
slow; or causing or tending to delay things- They are resorting to every dilatory tactic at their disposal to slow the investigation.
dilatory = slowing
- She accused the mayor of having been intentionally dilatory in eliminating corruption.
- His family knew him to be, on all common occasions, a most negligent and dilatory correspondent; but at such a time they had hoped for exertion.Jane Austen -- Pride and Prejudice
- The dilatory limousine came rolling up the drive.F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby
- ...a merchant or two, at the door of the post-office, together with an editor and a miscellaneous politician, awaiting a dilatory mail;Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The House of the Seven Gables
- —this, the perfect setting for his dilatory indolence:William Faulkner -- Absalom, Absalom!
- A little girl was driving home her cow, a plodding, dilatory, provoking creature in her behavior, but a valued companion for all that.Sarah Jewett -- A White Heron
- After a pause he added "sir" in a dilatory, grudging way.F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby
- I am not to blame that the Minister is vacillating, a coward, dense, dilatory, and has all bad qualities.Tolstoy, Leo -- War and Peace
- More dilatory counsels prevailed.Joseph Conrad -- Lord Jim
- Dear Miss Tallis, Thank you for sending us Two Figures by a Fountain, and please accept our apologies for this dilatory response.Ian McEwan -- Atonement
- His family knew him to be, on all common occasions, a most negligent and dilatory correspondent; but at such a time they had hoped for exertion.Jane Austen -- Pride and Prejudice
- I've got a complaint that makes me a little dilatory.George Eliot -- Middlemarch
- I am not to blame that the Minister is vacillating, a coward, dense, dilatory, and has all bad qualities.Leo Tolstoy -- War and Peace
- He had had full warning of Mr. Flack's intentions, and might have bought the plot before building commenced: but he was apathetic and dilatory.E.M. Forster -- A Room With A View
- ] I may perceive These Cardinals trifle with me; I abhor This dilatory sloth and tricks of Rome.William Shakespeare -- Henry VIII
- Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft; And wit depends on dilatory time.William Shakespeare -- Othello, the Moor of Venice
- He always moved with the alertness of a mind which could neither be undecided nor dilatory, but now he seemed more sudden than usual in his disappearance.Jane Austen -- Emma
- Once the mosquitoes hit, the cow's dilatoriness became almost more than Newt could endure.Larry McMurtry -- Lonesome Dove
- The winter, however, was spent cheerfully; and although the spring was uncommonly late, when it came its beauty compensated for its dilatoriness.Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein
dilatory = slow (delaying)
dilatory = slow or late
dilatory = late (delayed)
dilatory = inclined to waste time
dilatory = slow (inclined to cause delay)
dilatory = slow