re·tar·da·tion /ˌriˌtɑrˈdeʃən, rɪ-/
 遲延,妨礙,阻止


 re·tar·da·tion /ˌrɪˌtɑrˈdeʃən, rɪ-/ 名詞
 [精神發育]遲緩,阻滯,延遲


 Re·tar·da·tion n.
 1. The act of retarding; hindrance; the act of delaying; as, the retardation of the motion of a ship; -- opposed to acceleration.
    The retardations of our fluent motion.   --De Quinsey.
 2. That which retards; an obstacle; an obstruction.
    Hills, sloughs, and other terrestrial retardations.   --Sir W. Scott.
 3. Mus. The keeping back of an approaching consonant chord by prolonging one or more tones of a previous chord into the intermediate chord which follows; -- differing from suspension by resolving upwards instead of downwards.
 4. The extent to which anything is retarded; the amount of retarding or delay.
 Retardation of the tide. (a) The lunitidal interval, or the hour angle of the moon at the time of high tide any port; the interval between the transit of the moon and the time of high tide next following. (b) The age of the tide; the retard of the tide. See under Retard, n.

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 retardation
      n 1: a decrease in speed; "the deceleration of the arms race"
           [syn: deceleration, slowing] [ant: acceleration]
      2: the extent to which something is delayed or held back
      3: any agent that retards or delays or hinders;
         "flame-retardant" [syn: retardant, retardent]
      4: lack of normal development of intellectual capacities [syn:
         mental retardation, backwardness, slowness, subnormality]
      5: the act of slowing down or falling behind [syn: slowdown,
         lag]