postponement

/poʊstˈpoʊnmɪnt/

/pəʊstˈpʌʊnmənt/

Other forms: postponements

When you delay something until a later time or date, that's a postponement. If a trial lawyer doesn't have all the information she needs, she may ask the judge for a postponement until the following week.

A postponement can also be called a deferral or a stay, and it means rescheduling something for later. You can request a postponement of your chemistry test, but there's no guarantee you'll get it. When a baseball game or tennis match gets rained out, the teams agree on a postponement, starting over at the earliest opportunity. Postponement has a Latin root, postponere, "put after, neglect, or postpone."

Definitions of postponement

1. noun

   act of putting off to a future time
   synonyms: deferment, deferral

   types:

   adjournment

   the act of postponing to another time or place

   type of:

   delay, holdup

   the act of delaying; inactivity resulting in something being put off until a later time
2. noun

   time during which some action is awaited
   synonyms: delay, hold, time lag, wait

   types:

   extension

   a mutually agreed delay in the date set for the completion of a job or payment of a debt

   moratorium

   a legally authorized postponement before some obligation must be discharged

   retardation

   the extent to which something is delayed or held back

   type of:

   break, intermission, interruption, pause, suspension

   a time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something