All 3 Uses of

defer
in
War and Peace

but it was impossible to defer the journey to Moscow any longer.
Chpt 7 *

defer = postpone (delay until a later time)

He was not meditating, but only deferring the moment of making the effort to lift those legs up and turn over on the bed.†
Chpt 10 *

deferring = postponing

A fourth letter had come from Prince Andrew, from Rome, in which he wrote that he would have been on his way back to Russia long ago had not his wound unexpectedly reopened in the warm climate, which obliged him to defer his return till the beginning of the new year.†
Chpt 7

Definitions:

(1) (defer as in: deferred the decision)
delay or postpone (hold off until a later time)
(2) (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)
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
meaning too rare to warrant focus:

More rarely, defer can be used to indicate showing respect or deference; as when Dickens wrote in Bleak House: "They know him there and defer to him."