Postpone

//poʊstˈpoʊn// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To delay or put off an event, appointment, etc.

    "“[…] Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. Oh, dear, there's so much to tell you, so many warnings to give you, but all that must be postponed for the moment.”"

  2. 2
    hold back to a later time wordnet
  3. 3
    To place after in order; to deem less important. obsolete

    "Why should the See of Antioch, that most ancient and truly Apostolical Church, where the Christian name began […] be postponed to Alexandria?"

Synonyms

All synonyms
adjourndeferdeferdelayhold offhold up

Example

More examples

"For the moment, we want to postpone making a decision."

Etymology

From Latin postpōnō (“I put after; I postpone”) from post (“after”) + pōnō (“I put; I place”), compare forestall.

Related phrases

put offstretch out

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.