tarry

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English tarien, terien (“to vex, harass, cause to hesitate, delay”), from Old English tirian, tirġan, terġan (“to worry, exasperate, pain, provoke, excite”), from Proto-Germanic *terganą, *targijaną (“to pull, tease, irritate”), from Proto-Indo-European *derHgʰ- (“to pull, tug, irritate”). Cognate with Dutch tergen (“to provoke”), German zergen (“to vex, irritate, provoke”), Norwegian Bokmål terge (“to irritate, provoke”), Russian дёргать (djórgatʹ, “to pull, yank, jerk, pester”). Compare also Walloon tårdjî (“to be late, to be slow, to wait”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtæɹ.iː/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: tăr'ē
  • (Mary–marry–merry distinction) IPA^(key): /ˈtæɹ.i/
  • (Mary–marry–merry merger) IPA^(key): /ˈtɜɹ.i/, /ˈteɹ.i/
  • Homophones: terry, Terry (all only in accents with the Mary–marry–merry merger)
• Rhymes: -æɹi

Verb

tarry (third-person singular simple present tarries, present participle tarrying, simple past and past participle tarried) (dated)

1. (intransitive) To delay; to be late or tardy in beginning or doing anything.

   Synonyms: forestall, put off; see also Thesaurus:procrastinate

   • c. 1170, Maimonides, “Thirteen principles of faith”, in Mishneh Torah:

     I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah; and even though he may tarry, nonetheless, I wait every day for his coming.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Habakkuk 2:3:

     For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

   • 1918 August, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Bliss”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 126:

     But so was Face, crouched before the fire in her banana skins, and so was Mug, smoking a cigarette and saying as he flicked the ash: “Why doth the bridegroom tarry?”

2. (intransitive) To linger in expectation of something or until something is done or happens.

   Synonym: abide

   • 1953, James Baldwin, “Florence's Prayer”, in Go Tell It on the Mountain (Penguin Classics), London: Penguin Books, published 2001, →ISBN:

     And, thinking of to-morrow, when the church would rise up, singing, under the booming Sunday light, he thought of the light for which they tarried, which, in an instant, filled the soul, causing […] the new-born in Christ to testify: Once I was blind and now I see.

3. (intransitive) To abide, stay or wait somewhere, especially if longer than planned.

   Synonyms: hang about, hang around, linger, loiter; see also Thesaurus:tarry

   • 1700, [William] Congreve, The Way of the World, a Comedy. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, Act III, scene xv, page 47:

     [...] I have Thoughts to tarry a ſmall Matter in Town, to learn ſomewhat of your Lingo firſt, before I croſs the Seas.

4. (intransitive) To stay somewhere temporarily.

   Synonyms: sojourn, stay, stay over, stop, stop over; see also Thesaurus:sojourn

   • 1820, Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, published 1864:

     In this by-place of nature, there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane; who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow […].

5. (transitive) To wait for; to stay or stop for; to allow to linger.

   Synonyms: await, wait on; see also Thesaurus:wait for

   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Fly, fly, my lord. There is no tarrying here.

   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     He that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding.

   • 1815, Walter Scott, chapter 8, in Guy Mannering, volume 1:

     "If I had heard otherwise," said the old man, looking up with a stern and menacing countenance, "you should have heard of it too." And he plodded on his way, tarrying no farther question.

Alternative forms

• tarrow (Scotland)

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

tarry (plural tarries)

1. A sojourn.

   Synonyms: stay, stop, stop-over

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English terrie, equivalent to tar +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑː.ɹi/, enPR: tä'rē

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːɹi

Adjective

tarry (comparative tarrier, superlative tarriest)

1. Resembling tar.

   Synonym: (in consistency) pitchy

   • 1909, E[rnest] W[illiam] Hornung, “An Inaugural Banquet”, in Mr. Justice Raffles, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 2:

     And he led the way from the station, stopping once to gloat over the sunset across Trafalgar Square, and again to inhale the tarry scent of the warm wood-paving, which was perfume to his nostrils as the din of its traffic was music to his ears, before we came to one of those political palaces which permit themselves to be included in the list of ordinary clubs.

2. Covered with tar.

   Synonyms: bituminized, pitchy

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “tarry”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967