Latin dīlātōri-us, < dīlātōr-em a delayer, agent-n. < differre, dīlāt- to defer v.1, delay: see dilate v.1 Compare French dilatoire (13th cent. in Hatzfeld & Darmesteter). (OED)
1. a. Tending to cause delay; made for the purpose of gaining time or deferring decision or action.
b. Law. dilatory plea, a plea put in for the sake of delay.
2. Given to or characterized by delay; slow, tardy.
a. Of persons, their characters, habits, etc.
b. Of actions.
B. n. Law. A means of procuring delay; a dilatory plea
"George Eliot is an author whom dilatory writers can point to with some optimism: she didn't start writing fiction until she was thirty-six, and then only at the encouragement of Lewes, who suspected that she might have a talent for 'concrete description' as she wrote later in an essay titled 'How I Came to Write Fiction.'"
- Rebecca Mead, "Middlemarch and Me: What George Eliot teaches us", February 14 & 21, 2011, The New Yorker
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