different between delaying vs cunctatory

English

Verb

delaying

1. present participle of delay

Noun

delaying (plural delayings)

1. A delay.
   • 1826, Roger North, The Lives of the Right Hon. Francis North, Baron Guilford; the Hon. Sir Dudley North; and the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North

     […] a hearing, with a file of orders in the solicitor's bundle, as big as the common-prayer-book, for commissions, injunctions, publications, speedings, delayings, and other interlocutories; all dear ware to the client in every respect.

   • 1909, Reginald Farrer, In a Yorkshire Garden

     However, there was no profit in cowardly delayings; booted and breeched, we sallied forth into a cold, ungenial morning such as you get in Switzerland […]

English

Etymology

From Latin cunctor (“delay, impede”).

Adjective

cunctatory

1. delaying; procrastinating
   • 1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming Pool Library, Penguin Books (1988), page 252

     Indeed, for several weeks the time rushed by, and it was really only in the final month, when freedom grew palpably close, that every minute took on a crabwise, cunctatory manner, came near to stalling altogether.

Derived terms

• cunctation