tardy

Meanings

Adjective

• Late; overdue or delayed.
• Moving with a slow pace or motion; not swift.
• Ineffectual; slow-witted, slow to act, or dull.
• Unwary; unready (especially in the phrase take (someone) tardy).
• Criminal; guilty.

Noun

• A piece of paper given to students who are late to class.
• An instance of a student being marked as tardy by a teacher on their attendance sheet.

Verb

• To make tardy.

Related

Similar words

• belated, delayed

Origin

• From an earlier tardive, from French tardif, ultimately from Vulgar Latin *tardivus, from Latin tardus ("slow”, “sluggish"), of obscure origin.