dilatory
Other forms: dilatorily
Something dilatory creates a delay. Remember when your math teacher asked you to work out a problem on the board and you tried to get her talking about her favorite theorems instead? That was a dilatory tactic.
The adjective dilatory comes from the Latin root word dilator, a noun that means "someone who puts off things" or "a procrastinator." If you are always late to appointments, people may accuse you of being dilatory, especially if they think you don't have a good excuse.
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wasting time
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Vocabulary lists containing dilatory
From casually relaxed to downright lazy, these words describe various kinds of doing nothing. For more synonym lists, explore our Say What You Mean resources.
Whether you're too busy or not busy enough, often things fall through the cracks and don't get done. This is a list for the lazy forgetters and the multitasking forgetters alike. Especially this time of year, something gets missed- the gift for the third cousin who rarely visits, that side dish for the nephew with the complicated dietary restrictions or the passport renewal for the family getaway. Whether you can't seem to keep a single thing in your head or compulsively keep lists of the thousand little tasks you have to accomplish before the New Year, here are 15 words about being forgetful.
Sometimes there are words that you've seen, read and maybe even used in conversation whose meaning you can never keep straight. Even after looking it up, the right definition doesn't stick. Here are 15 words with definitions that can be difficult to remember. Some look like they have a negative element in them, but either because their positive counterpoint has fallen out of use or because it never existed in the first place, the word doesn't really have a negative sense. Other words below are often confused for their opposite or have come to have connotations not quite reflected in their dictionary definitions.