Library / English Dictionary

POSTPONE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hold back to a later time

Example:

let's postpone the exam

Synonyms:

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

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

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))

Credits

 Context examples: 

The ability to grow new egg cells may have significant implications for women in Western societies, many of whom postpone childbearing to establish careers, sometimes into their late thirties or forties.

(Chemotherapy cocktail may cause adult women to grow new egg cells, Wikinews)

She was debating within herself on the eligibility of beginning her story directly, or postponing it till Marianne were in stronger health;—and they crept on for a few minutes in silence.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Either I must find the man or else the examination must be postponed until fresh papers are prepared, and since this cannot be done without explanation, there will ensue a hideous scandal, which will throw a cloud not only on the college, but on the university.

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

Palliative care affirms life and regards dying as a normal process, neither hastens nor postpones death, provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms, integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care, offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death, and offers a support system to help the family cope during the patient's illness and in their own bereavement.

(Hospice Care, NCI Thesaurus)

But you are distant from me, and it is possible that you may dread and yet be pleased with this explanation; and in a probability of this being the case, I dare not any longer postpone writing what, during your absence, I have often wished to express to you but have never had the courage to begin.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Our dinner had been indefinitely postponed; but it was growing so late, that my aunt had ordered it to be got ready, when she gave a sudden alarm of donkeys, and to my consternation and amazement, I beheld Miss Murdstone, on a side-saddle, ride deliberately over the sacred piece of green, and stop in front of the house, looking about her.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was to see that the doors were open and the signal of a green or white light in a window which faced the drive was to give notice if all was safe or if the attempt had better be postponed.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My destruction might indeed arrive a few months sooner, but if my torturer should suspect that I postponed it, influenced by his menaces, he would surely find other and perhaps more dreadful means of revenge.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

My aunt reported to us, afterwards, that, at first, he was like a man playing the kettle-drums, and constantly divided his attentions between the two; but that, finding this confuse and fatigue him, and having his copy there, plainly before his eyes, he soon sat at it in an orderly business-like manner, and postponed the Memorial to a more convenient time.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I think it was on the third day that a telegram signed Henry C. Gatz arrived from a town in Minnesota. It said only that the sender was leaving immediately and to postpone the funeral until he came.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)