Then I'll work on the principle that deference is no substitute for obedience.

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; am an attendant lord, one that will do to swell a progress, start a scene or two, advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, deferential, glad to be of use, politic, cautious, and meticulous; full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; at times, indeed, almost ridiculous— almost, at times, the Fool.

Are you deferring your college admission?

The contract provides for a deferred payment over three years.

I don't want to defer your wishes.

These might be guarantees, extended trial periods, deferred payment plans or the bundling of add-on products.

The payment will be deferred for two years.

There's a sense in which doing good for our neighbor is really healthy, not just for our neighbor, but for ourselves as well, and we lose, in many ways, the training ground of how to be good citizens when we lose that or when we defer the problem to somebody else.

Tom was too deferential.

He generally defers to his wife.