deferrable

or de·fer·a·ble

[ dih-fur-uh-buhl ]

adjective

1. capable of being deferred or postponed:

   a deferrable project.

2. qualified or eligible to receive a military deferment.

noun

1. a person eligible for deferment from compulsory military service.

Other Words From

• nonde·ferra·ble nonde·fera·ble adjective
• unde·ferra·ble unde·fera·ble adjective
• unde·ferra·bly unde·fera·bly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of deferrable¹

First recorded in 1940–45; defer ¹ + -able

Example Sentences

It’s that Democrats can’t afford to take unnecessary risks, dream deferrable dreams and engage in avoidable distractions as they set about the urgent work of defeating him.

From New York Times

Taxes on foreign earnings shouldn’t be permanently deferrable.

From Seattle Times

He’s an all-too American carrier of a chronic dysfunction that was lathered into our economic and social foundations and that cracked the country open in 1860, when the Whig Party collapsed amid a no-longer deferrable dispute over slavery and states’ rights, and in 1929, when the Republican classical economic and political liberalism that “translates pretty easily into… a sanction for popular impatience with governmental restraints on greed,” as the late historian Edmund Morgan put it, brought the country pretty close to implosion as fascism was rising in Europe.

From Salon

“It is my opinion that a discussion about plants’ rights is no longer deferrable.

From The Guardian

If this failure to distinguish between immediate and deferrable pain is repeated, the startup will over forecast this quarter and perhaps future ones as well.

From Forbes