第1个回答 2022-08-29
There are several differences among these words, the most important difference is that:
"Delay" implies that something goes wrong, or someone does something wrong. For example. Let's look at these 2 sentences:
John delayed the meeting.
vs
John postponed the meeting.
The 1st sentence looks almost like a complaint. In other words, it means that John did something wrong and then the meeting was moved to a later time. So if you use the word delay at work, be prepared to be asked by your boss about the reason why.
While the 2nd sentence implies that John moved the meeting to a later time. He did it out of his own will, according to a purpose, or subject to a reason that he can not control but he knows, e.g. an power out break or a coming storm.
Defer is similar to Postpone in this perspective.
so if you say that John deferred the meeting. it sounds almost the same as John postponed the meeting. However, postpone is used more often than Defer.
Secondly,Delay can be a noun, Postpone and Defer can not.
e.g. There is a delay in the go live date.
Thirdly, you can deter something to a person. e.g.
Mary deterred the deiciosn to her manager.
It means that "Mary would not make the decision, instead, she let her manager to make the decision".