To delay or postpone action; to put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.
From Latin 'procrastinatus,' meaning 'deferred until tomorrow' ('pro' = forward/for + 'cras' = tomorrow + suffix meaning 'to make'). Roman politicians and writers used this word to describe the tactical delay of decisions or actions until the next day. Interestingly, 'cras' (tomorrow) is related to 'crastinus' (of tomorrow), giving us the rare English word 'crastinal' meaning 'of tomorrow.' So procrastination literally means 'making it tomorrow's problem.'
Romans invented this word because apparently even ancient politicians were masters of putting things off until tomorrow! The Latin literally means 'to make it tomorrow's business' — so every time you procrastinate, you're using a 2,000-year-old Roman strategy for avoiding today's work. Some things never change across civilizations.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.