procrastinate

English

WOTD – 21 May 2007

Etymology

First attested in 1548; from Latin prōcrastinātus, perfect passive participle of prōcrastinō (defer, put off till tomorrow) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from prō- (in favor of) + crāstinus (of or belonging to tomorrow) + (verb-forming suffix), from crās (tomorrow).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /pɹəʊˈkɹæs.tɪ.neɪt/
  • (US) enPR: prō-krăs'tə-nāt', IPA(key): /pɹoʊˈkɹæs.tə.neɪt/, /pɹəˈkɹæs.tə.neɪt/
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • (General Australian) IPA(key): /pɹəˈkɹæs.tɪ.næɪt/

Verb

procrastinate (third-person singular simple present procrastinates, present participle procrastinating, simple past and past participle procrastinated)

  1. (intransitive) To delay taking action; to wait until later.
    He procrastinated until the last minute and had to stay up all night to finish.
  2. (transitive) To put off; to delay (something).
    • 1816, John Pickering, A vocabulary; or, Collection of words and phrases, page 4:
      Hence It became manifest to the publishers of Webster, that some device must be resorted to, to induce apathy in the publick mind, and thereby procrastinate the inevitable crisis which they foresaw was approaching, the expulsion of his elementary works from our primary schools.

Synonyms

Antonyms

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Further reading

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

procrastinate

  1. inflection of procrastinare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

procrastinate f pl

  1. feminine plural of procrastinato

Latin

Verb

prōcrāstināte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of prōcrāstinō

Spanish

Verb

procrastinate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of procrastinar combined with te