/ˈtɑːdi/, /ˈtɑɹdi/
OriginFrom an earlier tardive, from French tardif, from Late Latin tardīvus, from Latin tardus (“slow”, “sluggish”), of obscure origin.
- Late; overdue or delayed.
“He yawned, then raised a tardy hand over his mouth.”
“When everything is ended, then you come. / These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life, / One time or other break some gallows’ back.”
“Men of genius anticipate their contemporaries, and know they are such, long before the tardy consent of the public.”
- Moving with a slow pace or motion; not swift.
“[…] fashions in proud Italy, / Whose manners still our tardy apish nation / Limps after in base imitation.”
“Nor should their Age by Yeares be told: / Whose Souls, more swift then Motion, clime; / And check the tardy Flight of Time.”
“In various Views she tries her constant Theme; / Finds him, in Councils, and in Arms, the same: / When certain to o’ercome, inclin’d to save; / Tardy to Vengeance; and with Mercy brave.”
- Ineffectual; slow-witted, slow to act, or dull.
“His tardy performance bordered on incompetence.”
- obsoleteUnwary; unready (especially in the phrase take (someone) tardy).
“Be not ta’en tardy by unwise delay.”
“Yield, Scoundrel base (quoth she) or die; / Thy life is mine, and liberty. / But if thou think’st I took thee tardy, / And dar’st presume to be so hardy, / To try thy fortune o’re afresh, / I’le wave ”
- obsoleteCriminal; guilty.
“And the Franks served the Men much the same ſauce when they found them tardy, and made them run their Heats through the Streets”
- USA piece of paper given to students who are late to class.
“The teacher gave her a tardy because she did not come into the classroom until after the bell.”
- USAn instance of a student's being marked as tardy by a teacher on the teacher's attendance sheet.
- obsolete, transitiveTo make tardy.
“the good mind of Camillo tardied
My swift command”
- intransitive, rareTo dawdle.
“Sitting there on the rock behind the school, I heard nothing but the occasional raised voice of some youngster tardying on his way home, and the joints in the schoolhouse squeaking from the frost.”
Formstardier(comparative) · tardiest(superlative) · tardies(plural) · tardies(present, singular, third-person) · tardying(participle, present) · tardied(participle, past) · tardied(past) · Tardys(plural)