Part 126

The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day.

Macaulay.

De*lay", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Delayed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Delaying.] [OF. deleer, delaier, fr. the noun délai, or directly fr. L. dilatare to enlarge, dilate, in LL., to put off. See Delay, n., and cf. Delate, 1st Defer, Dilate.] 1. To put off; to defer; to procrastinate; to prolong the time of or before.

My lord delayeth his coming.

Matt. xxiv. 48.

2. To retard; to stop, detain, or hinder, for a time; to retard the motion, or time of arrival, of; as, the mail is delayed by a heavy fall of snow.

Thyrsis! whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal.

Milton.

3. To allay; to temper. [Obs.]

The watery showers delay the raging wind.

Surrey.

De*lay", v. i. To move slowly; to stop for a time; to linger; to tarry.

There seem to be certain bounds to the quickness and slowness of the succession of those ideas, . . . beyond which they can neither delay nor hasten.

Locke.

De*lay"er (?), n. One who delays; one who lingers.

De*lay"ing*ly, adv. By delays. [R.] Tennyson.

De*lay"ment (?), n. Hindrance. [Obs.] Gower.

||Del` cred"er*e (?). [It., of belief or trust.] (Mercantile Law) An agreement by which an agent or factor, in consideration of an additional premium or commission (called a del credere commission), engages, when he sells goods on credit, to insure, warrant, or guarantee to his principal the solvency of the purchaser, the engagement of the factor being to pay the debt himself if it is not punctually discharged by the buyer when it becomes due.

De"le (?), imperative sing. of L. delere to destroy. [Cf. Delete.] (Print.) Erase; remove; -- a direction to cancel something which has been put in type; usually expressed by a peculiar form of d, thus: .

De"le, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Deled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Deleing.] [From the preceding word.] (Print.) To erase; to cancel; to delete; to mark for omission.

Dele (?), v. t. [See Deal.] To deal; to divide; to distribute. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Del"e*ble (?; 277), a. [L. delebilis. See 1st Dele.] Capable of being blotted out or erased. "An impression easily deleble." Fuller.

De*lec"ta*ble (?), a. [OF. delitable, OF. delitable, F. délectable, fr. L. delectabilis, fr. delectare to delight. See Delight.] Highly pleasing; delightful.

Delectable both to behold and taste.

Milton.

-- De*lec"ta*ble*ness, n. -- De*lec"ta*bly, adv.

De*lec"tate (?), v. t. [L. delectatus, p. p. of delectare. See Delight.] To delight; to charm. [R.]

De`lec*ta"tion (?), n. [L. delectatio: cf. F. délectation.] Great pleasure; delight.