POSTPONE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does postpone mean? 

• POSTPONE (verb)
  The verb POSTPONE has 1 sense:

1. hold back to a later time

  Familiarity information: POSTPONE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POSTPONE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they postpone    ... he / she / it postpones   
Past simple: postponed   
Past participle: postponed   
-ing form: postponing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hold back to a later time

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

defer; hold over; postpone; prorogue; put off; put over; remit; set back; shelve; table

Context example:

let's postpone the exam

Hypernyms (to "postpone" is one way to...):

delay (act later than planned, scheduled, or required)

"Postpone" entails doing...:

reschedule (assign a new time and place for an event)

call off; cancel; scratch; scrub (postpone indefinitely or annul something that was scheduled)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "postpone"):

call (stop or postpone because of adverse conditions, such as bad weather)

hold (stop dealing with)

suspend (render temporarily ineffective)

probate (put a convicted person on probation by suspending his sentence)

reprieve; respite (postpone the punishment of a convicted criminal, such as an execution)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

postponement (act of putting off to a future time)

postponer (someone who postpones work (especially out of laziness or habitual carelessness))

 Context examples 

It has also been shown to postpone post-traumatic neural degeneration.

(Low Emission Laser Therapy, NCI Thesaurus)

I postponed this attempt for some months longer, for the importance attached to its success inspired me with a dread lest I should fail.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Then, Watson, we will postpone our breakfast.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He did not judge your father to be a person whom he could so properly consult as your uncle, and therefore readily postponed seeing him till after the departure of the former.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The results may differ by Member State but it's no reason to postpone the results.

(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)

They had postponed their breakfast on my account, and we sat down to table together.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She feared General Tilney did not like her appearance: she found it was implied in his preventing her admittance to his daughter, rather than postpone his own walk a few minutes.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Postpone indefinitely or annul something that was scheduled.

(Cancel, NCI Thesaurus)

Then perhaps I had better postpone my analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the morning.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A depleted bank account had caused me to postpone my holiday, and as to my companion, neither the country nor the sea presented the slightest attraction to him.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)