procrastinate

procrastinate

English

WOTD – 21 May 2007

Etymology

Either back-formation from procrastination, or from Latin prōcrastinātum, past participle of prōcrastinō (“defer, put off till tomorrow”), from prō (“in favor of”) + crāstinus (“of or belonging to tomorrow”), 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)

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• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈkɹæs.tɪ.næɪt/

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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

• procrastine (obsolete)
• (intransitive): delay, penelopize, stall
• (transitive): delay, postpone, put off, stall

Antonyms

• precrastinate

Derived terms

• procrastination
• procrastinator

Translations

put off; to delay taking action

Arabic: سَوَّفَ‎ (ar) (sawwafa) Azerbaijani: ertələmək Bulgarian: бавя се (bavja se), мая се (maja se) Catalan: procrastinar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 耽擱／耽搁 (zh) (dāngē), 拖延 (zh) (tuōyán) Czech: odkládat (cs) Dutch: uitstellen (nl), voor zich uitschuiven, soggen (nl) Finnish: viivytellä (fi), vitkastella (fi), jahkailla (fi), aikailla (fi), kuhnailla (fi) French: procrastiner (fr) Galician: procrastinar, enredar German: aufschieben (de), verzögern (de), vertagen (de), prokrastinieren (de) Greek: χρονοτριβώ (el) (chronotrivó), καθυστερώ (el) (kathysteró) Hungarian: késlekedik (hu), húzza az időt Italian: procrastinare (it) Korean: 미루다 (ko) (miruda) Latin: procrastino Macedonian: одложува (odložuva) Maori: tonanawe Norwegian: somle Portuguese: procrastinar (pt) Romanian: amâna (ro), tărăgăna (ro), procrastina Russian: ме́длить (ru) impf (médlitʹ), тяну́ть (ru) impf (tjanútʹ), откла́дывать (ru) impf (otkládyvatʹ) Serbo-Croatian: odugovlačiti (sh) Spanish: hacer desidia, procrastinar (es) Swedish: prokrastinera (sv), förhala (sv) Thai: ผัดวันประกันพรุ่ง (th), ผัด (th) (pàt), ผัดผ่อน (pàt-pɔ̀n) Turkish: gecikme (tr) Yiddish: אָפּלייגן‎ (opleygn)

put off; delay something

Azerbaijani: ertələmək Bulgarian: отлагам (bg) (otlagam) Catalan: procrastinar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 耽擱／耽搁 (zh) (dāngē), 拖延 (zh) (tuōyán) Danish: udsætte, udskyde, forhale (da), forsinke Dutch: uitstellen (nl), soggen (nl) Finnish: lykätä (fi), viivyttää (fi), viivästää, viivästyttää, myöhäistää (fi), myöhästyttää (fi) German: verschleppen (de), prokrastinieren (de) Greek: καθυστερώ (el) (kathysteró), αναβάλλω (el) (anavállo) Hungarian: halogat (hu), elodáz, húz-halaszt, elhúz (hu) Italian: ritardare (it), posticipare (it), differire (it), rimandare (it), dilazionare (it), temporeggiare (it) Macedonian: одолговлекува (odolgovlekuva) Maori: whakatonanawe, whakaroaroa Norwegian: utsette (no) Portuguese: procrastinar (pt) Russian: откла́дывать (ru) impf (otkládyvatʹ) Serbo-Croatian: odlagati (sh) Spanish: hacer desidia, procrastinar (es), dejar para después Swedish: skjuta upp (sv), förhala (sv) Turkish: geciktirmek (tr)

See also

• carpe diem cras
• perendinate
• tomorrow never comes

Further reading

• procrastinate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• procrastinate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• procrastinate at OneLook Dictionary Search

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Italian

Verb

procrastinate

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

Participle

procrastinate f pl

1. feminine plural of procrastinato

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Latin

Verb

prōcrāstināte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of prōcrāstinō