Retarding

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Slowing down or delaying the progress, development, or advancement of something
2. Slowing the advancement or progress of a process, activity, or development while creating obstacles to efficient growth or evolution is defined as this action
3. Making something move or happen more slowly than usual or expected

Etymology: Retarding is the present participle of "retard," so its story is really the story of that verb. "Retard" entered English in the late 14th century, borrowed from Old French "retarder," which came from Late Latin "retardare," meaning "to delay or hinder." The Latin base is "tardare," "to make slow," built on "tardus," "slow," with the prefix "re-" adding the sense of backward or back again. So the word's core idea was simply holding something back. The verb began as a neutral term for delay: a clock might be retarded, or a journey. Its later reputation as a term for slowed mental development comes from 19th-century medical usage, when "mentally retarded" was coined to describe those whose development lagged behind their age. That clinical sense has since become considered offensive, and the adjective "retarding" today mostly appears in its original sense, describing something that slows movement or progress, such as a retarding force on a moving object.

Synonyms: slowing, delaying, impeding, hindering, obstructing

Antonyms: accelerating, promoting, advancing, facilitating, speeding