Literary notes about dilatory (AI summary)
The term dilatory is often employed in literature to evoke delay or procrastination, frequently casting characters, institutions, or actions in a negative light. In historical narratives and military contexts, it is used to denote hesitancy or slow progress that can lead to strategic disadvantages, as illustrated when adversaries are criticized for their tardy maneuvers [1], [2]. In domestic and social settings, the word underscores a character's sluggishness or inefficiency, enhancing both humor and criticism in the narrative voice [3], [4]. Even in poetic and dramatic writing, dilatory can symbolize not only literal delays but also the languid passage of time and missed opportunities, enriching themes of indecision and regret [5], [6].
- While Botaniates advanced with cautious and dilatory steps, his active competitor stood in arms before the gates of Constantinople.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - I am not to blame that the Minister is vacillating, a coward, dense, dilatory, and has all bad qualities.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - His family knew him to be on all common occasions, a most negligent and dilatory correspondent, but at such a time, they had hoped for exertion.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - His letter was soon dispatched; for, though dilatory in undertaking business, he was quick in its execution.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft; And wit depends on dilatory time.
— from Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare - It seemed to express the dilatory passage of the years during which he had looked for her coming, and had looked in vain.
— from The Truants by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
