Etymology
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procrastinate (v.)

"to put off till another day, defer to a future time," 1580s, a back formation from procrastination or else from Latin procrastinatus, past participle of procrastinare "to put off till tomorrow; defer, delay." Intransitive sense of "be dilatory" is by 1630s. Related: Procrastinated; procrastinating. The earlier verb was procrastine (1540s), from French procrastiner.

Do not put off till tomorrow what can be put off till day-after-tomorrow just as well. ["Mark Twain," "Advice to Young People," 1882]

Entries linking to procrastinate

procrastination (n.)

"a putting off to a future time; dilatoriness," 1540s, from French procrastination (16c.) and directly from Latin procrastinationem (nominative procrastinatio) "a putting off from day to day," noun of action from past-participle stem of procrastinare "put off till tomorrow, defer, delay," from pro "forward" (see pro-) + crastinus "belonging to tomorrow," from cras "tomorrow," a word of unknown origin.

procrastinator (n.)

"one who defers to doing of anything to a future time," c. 1600, agent noun in Latin form from procrastinate (v.).

updated on November 22, 2020

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Definitions of procrastinate from WordNet

procrastinate (v.)
postpone doing what one should be doing;
He did not want to write the letter and procrastinated for days
Synonyms: stall / drag one's feet / drag one's heels / shillyshally / dilly-dally / dillydally
procrastinate (v.)
postpone or delay needlessly;
He procrastinated the matter until it was almost too late
From wordnet.princeton.edu, not affiliated with etymonline.

Dictionary entries near procrastinate

proclamation

proclitic

proclivity

Procne

proconsul

procrastinate

procrastination

procrastinator

procreant

procreate

procreation

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