retardment

English

Etymology

Compare Middle French and French retardement.

Noun

retardment (countable and uncountable, plural retardments)

1. Retardation; the act of retarding or delaying.
   • 1653, François Rabelais, translated by Thomas Urquhart, Gargantua and Pantagruel:

     And when he saw that all the dogs were flocking about her, yarring at the retardment of their access to her, and every way keeping such a coil with her as they are wont to do about a proud or salt bitch, he forthwith departed […]

   • 1653, Henry Cogan, The voyages and adventures of Fernand Mendez Pinto, volume 3, translation of original by Fernão Mendes Pinto, published 1645:

     And forasmuch as his return hath been longer then I looked for, I have sent thus expressly to know both of him, and of you, the cause of this retardment of his.

   • 1920, William Cecil Pendleton, History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia: 1748-1920, page 657:

     Despite the retardments occasioned by the war, and the heavy financial loss suffered from the freeing of 1200 slaves in Tazewell, the wealth of the county was not seriously impaired.

Translations

retardation — see retardation

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “retardment”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
• “retardment”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.