Tardy

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tardy¹

  • /ˈtɑːdi/ UK
  • /ˈtɑɹdi/ US

Rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)di

Where it comes from

From an earlier tardive, from French tardif, from Late Latin tardīvus, from Latin tardus (“slow”, “sluggish”), of obscure origin.

adjective tardier · tardiest

  1. Late; overdue or delayed. He yawned, then raised a tardy hand over his mouth.
  2. 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.
  3. Ineffectual; slow-witted, slow to act, or dull. His tardy performance bordered on incompetence.
  4. obsolete Unwary; unready (especially in the phrase take (someone) tardy). Be not ta’en tardy by unwise delay.
  5. obsolete Criminal; 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

noun tardies

  1. US A 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.
  2. US An instance of a student's being marked as tardy by a teacher on the teacher's attendance sheet.

verb tardies · tardying · tardied

  1. obsolete, transitive To make tardy. the good mind of Camillo tardied My swift command
  2. intransitive, rare To 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.

Tardy²

proper noun Tardys

  1. A surname.

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