Defer (Hastings' Dictionary)

From dis apart, and ferre to carry, to defer is properly ' to put aside,' and this meaning is found in early English. The mod. meaning is ' to put off to another occasion,' ' to postpone ' j but in older Eng. the word was loosely used in the general sense of ' put of,' ' delay,' as Dn 9" ' defer not, for thine o^vn sake, O my God' (nnxn-SN ' delay not,' ' tarry not,' the vb.

is never used in the sense of putting off to another occasion ; so Gn 34", Ec 5<) ; Pr 13" ' Hope deferred maketh the heart sick' (nji^cD 'drawn out,' ' protracted,' cf. Is 18'' where same part of vb. is tr. ' tall ' in RV) ; Is 48' ' For my name's sake will I defer mine anger' (^IKS, not postpone to another occasion, but delay so as not to vent it at all if possible, so Pr 19''). Delay is the meaning also in Apocr., Jth 2" (iw.k- pOvui), Sir 4' (Trapi\Ku), 18" (/wii-w).

But in NT (Ac 24^-' only) the meaning is postpone to another occasion, viz. to a fuller neanng ; the obsol. con- struction is, however, employed of having a person as the object, 'Felix . . deterred them ' (ive^dXert airrois). Cf. Rogers (1642), Naaman, 137, ' If it seem goode to thy wisdome to deferre me.' RV gives 'deferred' for ' prolonged' Ezk 12^- '•^ ("Ft). J. Hastings.