retard
verbEtymology From Middle English retarden, from Anglo-Norman or Latin, from Anglo-Norman retarder, from Latin retardāre (“to retard”, from re- + tardus (“slow”)).
1
To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progressing.
- retard the march of an army
- retard the motion of a ship
2
To put off; to postpone.
- to retard the attacks of old age
- to retard a rupture between nations
3
Obsolete To be slow or dilatory to perform (something).
4
To decelerate; to slow down.
- 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, retard, retard...2019, Airbus A350 - Landing (Retard) (YouTube), cockpit voice (actor):
- This application of hydraulics led Sir George Dowty to develop the wagon retarder system, which comprised small hydraulic rams mounted inside the rail. These rams could simply retard a wagon, or both retard and 'boost' or speed up a wagon by hydraulic pressure.2021 June 2, Michael Rhodes, “Tinsley reborn...”, in RAIL, number 932, pages 35–36:
5
Obsolete To stay back.
- Some years it [The River Nile] hath also retarded, and come far later than usually it was expected1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:
- Antonyms
- accelerate, speed, speed up, come forward
- Derived terms
- growth-retarding, retarded