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Definition of "deferment" [de•fer•ment]

  • The act or an instance of delaying or putting off. (noun)
  • Officially sanctioned postponement of compulsory military service. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "deferment" in a sentence
  • "From the Boston Globe: As the Vietnam War raged in the 1960s, Mitt Romney received a deferment from the draft as a Mormon "minister of religion" for the duration of his missionary work in France, which lasted two and a half years."
  • "My plans were thwarted by an unfortunate war and to assure deferment from the military, I found myself a misplaced medical student at Johns"
  • ""Howard Dean was granted a deferment from the military after showing up at a recruitment office with an x-ray indicating he had a bad back," the voice-of-God narrator says."