temporize TEM-puh-ryz, intransitive verb:
1. To be indecisive or evasive in order to gain time or delay action.
2. To comply with the time or occasion; to yield to prevailing opinion or circumstances.
3. To engage in discussions or negotiations so as to gain time (usually followed by 'with').
4. To come to terms (usually followed by 'with').
But when it comes to paying out claims, too many third-party providers stall, balk and temporize.
-- Stacie Zoe Berg, "Rx for reluctant health insurers", Insight on the News, September 22, 1997
On the big issues, Reagan rejected the importuning of his senior aides. He refused to temporize on the 1981 tax cut that ended Jimmy Carter's stagflation. At Reykjavik in 1985, he turned down State Department advice for an arms deal and stood fast to open the way for the Soviet collapse.
-- Robert Novak, "For the Great Communicator, presidency was about big dreams", Chicago Sun-Times, June 2004
The only alternative policy is to temporize, to make a series of concessions to North Korea as a way to buy time.
-- Charles Krauthammer, "U.S. should appease N. Korea -- temporarily", Deseret News, March 9, 2003
Temporize derives from Medieval Latin temporizare, "to pass the time," from Latin tempus, tempor-, "time." It is related to temporary.
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