Literary notes about Defer (AI summary)
The word defer in literature conveys a range of senses from delaying an action to yielding to another’s judgment. At times, it indicates a deliberate postponement of decisions or events, such as setting aside a matter until a later, more suitable occasion [1][2][3]. In other instances, it embodies a respectful submission to another's authority or opinion, as when characters defer to one another or to a higher judgment [4][5][6]. The term also plays a strategic role, used to delay actions like marital arrangements or military operations until conditions improve [7][8][9]. Whether denoting an interval before addressing a topic or a courteous acquiescence to someone else’s viewpoint, defer remains a versatile term that enriches narrative pacing and character interaction throughout literary history [10][11][12].
- Let us for the present suspend our judgment, and defer till after your return from thence the sifting and garbling of those niceties.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais - Thinking it best not to disturb them by appearing on the stairs, I resolved to defer going down till they had crossed the hall.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - For the present let me defer this subject, and say a word or two about the climate and houses in our country.
— from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott - Mrs. Stanton was accustomed to defer to Miss Anthony in such matters.
— from The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) by Ida Husted Harper - V. Now, where our senses conflict with our reason, we defer the judgment of the lower faculty to the judgment of the higher.
— from The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius - I am always willing to defer to your good sense.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - She was obliged to leave him abruptly, and to defer the execution of her purpose till some other time.
— from Joseph Andrews, Vol. 1 by Henry Fielding - And if you truly loved me, tell me how you could contrive to defer your happiness and mine so long?
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - Something might be done perhaps even now, at least to defer the marriage.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - But there goes the bell, and as I stand to win a little on this next race, I shall defer a lengthy explanation until a more fitting time.”
— from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - I hated the business, I begged leave to defer it: no—it should be gone through with now.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - At the same time, I must ask you to allow me to defer payment of one-half of the purchase money until a year from now.”
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol
