Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
verb
To deliberately act evasively or prolong a discussion in order to gain time or postpone a decision, sometimes so that a compromise can be reached or simply to make a conversation more temperate; to stall for time.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: British, English, Oxford, US, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To discuss, to negotiate; to reach a compromise.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: British, English, Oxford, US, broadly, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To apply a temporary piece of dental work that will later be removed.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: British, English, Oxford, US, transitive
Topics: dentistry, medicine, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To comply with the occasion or time; to humour, or yield to, current circumstances or opinion; also, to trim (“fluctuate between parties, so as to appear to favour each”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To delay, especially until a more favourable time; to procrastinate.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: British, English, Oxford, US, intransitive, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To take temporary measures or actions to manage a situation without providing a definitive or permanent solution.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: British, English, Oxford, US, transitive
Topics: medicine, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
draw out a discussion or process in order to gain time
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: temporise
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: prolong, protract, extend, draw out
History
From Middle French temporiser (“to wait one's time, temporize”) + English -ize (suffix forming verbs). Temporiser is derived from Medieval Latin temporizāre, from Latin temporāre (“to delay, put off”) + -izāre (suffix forming the present active infinitive of verbs). Temporāre is derived from tempor-, the inflected stem of tempus (“age, time, period; season of the year; due, opportune, or proper time”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *temp-, *ten- (“to extend, stretch (in the sense of a stretch of time)”), or *temh1- (“to cut (in the sense of a section of time)”)) + -āre. Compare temporalize.
Across languages
10 source translations are retained for this English entry.
