Tarry

/ˈtæ.ɹi/ · verb

Meaning

(intransitive) To delay; to be late or tardy in beginning or doing anything..

Definitions by Sense

1. (intransitive) To delay; to be late or tardy in beginning or doing anything.
2. (intransitive) To linger in expectation of something or until something is done or happens.
3. (intransitive) To abide, stay or wait somewhere, especially if longer than planned.
4. (intransitive) To stay somewhere temporarily.
5. (transitive) To wait for; to stay or stop for; to allow to linger.
6. A sojourn.
7. Resembling tar.
8. Covered with tar.

Example Sentences

I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah; and even though he may tarry, nonetheless, I wait every day for his coming.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

But so was Face, crouched before the fire in her banana skins, and so was Mug, smoking a cigarette and saying as he flicked the ash: “Why doth the bridegroom tarry?”

And, thinking of to-morrow, when the church would rise up, singing, under the booming Sunday light, he thought of the light for which they tarried, which, in an instant, filled the soul, causing […] the new-born in Christ to testify: Once I was blind and now I see.

[...] I have Thoughts to tarry a ſmall Matter in Town, to learn ſomewhat of your Lingo firſt, before I croſs the Seas.

In this by-place of nature, there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane; who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow[…].

Fly, fly, my lord. There is no tarrying here.

He that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding.

Synonyms for tarry

Antonyms for tarry

Related Words

Word Forms

• tarries
• tarrying
• tarried
• tarrow
• tarrier
• tarriest

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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