• (RP) enPR: dĭmûrʹ, IPA: /dɪˈmɜː/
• (America) enPR: dĭmûrʹ, IPA: /dɪˈmɝ/

demur (demurs, present participle demurring; past and past participle demurred)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To linger; to stay; to tarry

   • Yet durst not demur nor abide upon the camp.

2. (intransitive) To delay; to pause; to suspend proceedings or judgment in view of a doubt or difficulty; to hesitate; to put off the determination or conclusion of an affair.
   • 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward the Sixth

     Vpon this rubbe the English Embassadors thought fit to demurre

3. (intransitive) To scruple or object; to take exception; to oppose; to balk

   I demur to that statement.

   The personnel demurred at the management's new scheme.

4. (intransitive, legal) To interpose a demurrer.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To suspend judgment concerning; to doubt of or hesitate about
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     The latter I demur, for in their looks / Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears.

6. (transitive, obsolete) To cause delay to; to put off

   • He demands a fee, / And then demurs me with a vain delay.

• demurrage
• demurral
• demurrer

• German: vertagen, aufschieben, unterbrechen, zögern, verschieben
• Italian: rimandare, differire
• Spanish: demorar, atrasar

• German: einwenden, opponieren, widersprechen, sich verweigern, hindern

• German: verzögern, hinauszögern

demur (plural demurs)

1. Stop; pause; hesitation as to proceeding; suspense of decision or action; scruple.
   • 1735, [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London; Dublin: Re-printed by George Faulkner, bookseller, […], OCLC 6363280 ↗:

     All my demurs but double his attacks; At last he whispers, “Do; and we go snacks.”

   • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 132:

     Most geologists today would accept such evidence without demur, but it was still ‘fringe’ science when du Toit was publishing.