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]