How to Use defer in a Sentence

defer

verb
  • His cause of death was deferred.
    — Rachel Desantis, PEOPLE, 22 Apr. 2026
  • Many of the firm’s clients are deferred in lieu of jail time.
    — Paul Solotaroff, Rolling Stone, 1 July 2023
  • And for those who didn’t, what to do with a dream school deferred?
    — Stephen Chen, The Conversation, 18 Mar. 2026
  • The Jaguars win the coin toss and defer.
    — Jerry McDonald, Mercury News, 29 Sep. 2025
  • When asked to rank his dunks, James deferred.
    — Broderick Turner, Los Angeles Times, 31 Jan. 2026
  • Fears of a bubble can be deferred for now.
    — Yeo Boon Ping, CNBC, 30 Oct. 2025
  • For many leaders, that work has been easy to defer.
    — Adam Mills, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2025
  • That has prompted calls for the board at least to defer its vote.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2022
  • What was deferred is now buildable.
    — Gabriel Alin Zainescu, Forbes.com, 9 May 2026
  • In overtime, the Bears won the toss and deferred.
    — Dallas Morning News, 18 Jan. 2026
  • There are no restrictions on how much salary can be deferred.
    — Bill Plunkett, Oc Register, 19 Dec. 2025
  • Broncos win the toss, defer and will put their defense on the field first.
    — Joe Nguyen, Denver Post, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Student loans can be deferred while enrolled at least half-time.
    — Adam Palasciano, CNBC, 4 Aug. 2025
  • Some street people, like her, aren’t in need of a bedroll and defer to others.
    — Diane Bellcolumnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Nov. 2022
  • If harm followed, it would be managed or deferred.
    — Tom Debley, Mercury News, 5 Mar. 2026
  • The risk was known, but the protection was deferred.
    — Farshid Vahedifard, The Conversation, 29 Dec. 2025
  • All three items were not acted on and deferred to a future meeting.
    — Jeff Forward, Houston Chronicle, 2 Mar. 2020
  • Teams almost always defer and take the ball in the second half.
    — Terry Pluto, cleveland.com, 22 Oct. 2017
  • Though the temptation is to defer this work, the cost will show up later.
    — Paul Manns, Forbes.com, 18 May 2026
  • The Chargers won the coin-toss, deferred and kicked to the Chiefs.
    — Blair Kerkhoff, Kansas City Star, 6 Sep. 2025
  • But a bigger conflict over whether to share the costs of the health crisis was deferred.
    — Laurence Norman, WSJ, 9 Apr. 2020
  • The 49ers win the toss and elected to defer to the second half.
    — Jeremy Cluff, The Arizona Republic, 21 Nov. 2022
  • Beane felt like that was the case, but deferred to Richardson on the subject.
    — Joseph Person, charlotteobserver, 16 May 2017
  • The tradeoff has been rhythm — knowing when to attack and when to defer.
    — Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 21 Apr. 2026
  • He's been able to defer his mortgage and credit card payments.
    — Allie Morris, Dallas News, 1 May 2020
  • That requires decisions that many firms have deferred for too long.
    — Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 4 Feb. 2026
  • Payment on the loans can be deferred for 30 years, or until the home is sold.
    — Frederick Melo, Twin Cities, 13 Nov. 2019
  • Yet when tragedy strikes and her parents are killed in a car accident, her dreams are deferred.
    — Guy Lodge, chicagotribune.com, 5 Dec. 2019
  • What happens to a greatness deferred?
    — Alex J. Rouhandeh, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Apr. 2026
  • The war then deferred economic growth.
    — Shane Harris, The Atlantic, 26 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'defer.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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