tardy

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Late

   Late; overdue or delayed.

   • He yawned, then raised a tardy hand over his mouth.
   • When everything is ended, then you come. / These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life, / One time or other break some gallows’ back.
   • Men of genius anticipate their contemporaries, and know they are such, long before the tardy consent of the public.
2. 2

   Moving with a slow pace or motion

   Moving with a slow pace or motion; not swift.

   • […] fashions in proud Italy, / Whose manners still our tardy apish nation / Limps after in base imitation.
   • Nor should their Age by Yeares be told: / Whose Souls, more swift then Motion, clime; / And check the tardy Flight of Time.
   • In various Views she tries her constant Theme; / Finds him, in Councils, and in Arms, the same: / When certain to o’ercome, inclin’d to save; / Tardy to Vengeance; and with Mercy brave.
3. 3

   Ineffectual

   Ineffectual; slow-witted, slow to act, or dull.

   • His tardy performance bordered on incompetence.
4. ›+ 7 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Unwary

      Unwary; unready (especially in the phrase take (someone) tardy).

      • Be not ta’en tardy by unwise delay.
      • Yield, Scoundrel base (quoth she) or die; / Thy life is mine, and liberty. / But if thou think’st I took thee tardy, / And dar’st presume to be so hardy, / To try thy fortune o’re afresh, / I’le wave my title to thy flesh,
   2. 5

      Criminal

      Criminal; guilty.

      • And the Franks served the Men much the same ſauce when they found them tardy, and made them run their Heats through the Streets
   3. 6

      A piece of paper given to students who are late to class.

      • The teacher gave her a tardy because she did not come into the classroom until after the bell.
   4. 7

      An instance of a student's being marked as tardy by a teacher on the teacher's attendance…

      An instance of a student's being marked as tardy by a teacher on the teacher's attendance sheet.

   5. 8

      To make tardy.

      • the good mind of Camillo tardied My swift command
   6. 9

      To dawdle.

      • Sitting there on the rock behind the school, I heard nothing but the occasional raised voice of some youngster tardying on his way home, and the joints in the schoolhouse squeaking from the frost.
   7. 10

      A surname.

The neighborhood

• neighbortardy slip