Defer
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [1]
lit., "to throw up" (ana, "up," ballo, "to throw"), hence "to postpone," is used in the Middle Voice in Acts 24:22 , in the forensic sense of "deferring" the hearing of a case.
Acts 25:17
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( v. t.) To put off; to postpone to a future time; to delay the execution of; to delay; to withhold.
(2): ( v. t.) To render or offer.
(3): ( v. t.) To lay before; to submit in a respectful manner; to refer; - with to.
(4): ( v. i.) To yield deference to the wishes of another; to submit to the opinion of another, or to authority; - with to.
(5): ( v. i.) To put off; to delay to act; to wait.
King James Dictionary [3]
Defer, L To bear.
1. To delay to put off to postpone to a future time as, to defer the execution of a design.
When thou vowest a vow, defer not to pay it. Ecclesiastes 5 .
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick. Proverbs 13 .
2. To refer to leave to anothers judgment and determination.
In this sense, refer is now used.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
dē̇ - fûr ´ (אחר , 'āḥar (in Hiphil), ארך , 'ārakh (in Hiphil), משׁך , māshakh (in Niphal), "to postpone," more or less definitely; "delay"): In Old Testament passages such as Isaiah 48:9; Ezekiel 12:25 , Ezekiel 12:28; Daniel 9:19 , the idea of indefinite postponement agrees with the Hebrew and with the context. In the only New Testament occurrence of the word ἀναβάλλω , anabállō , in the middle voice, Acts 24:22 ) a definite postponement is implied.
