Belated

ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ED¹.]

  1.  Overtaken by lateness of the night; hence, overtaken by darkness, benighted.

1618.  Rowlands, Sacr. Memorie, 24. We are belated, and the time farre spent.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 783. Faerie Elves Whose midnight Revels … some belated Peasant sees.

1789.  G. White, Selborne (1853), 4. Belated shepherd swains See the cowl’d spectre.

  2.  Detained beyond the usual time, coming or staying too late; out of date, behind date.

1670.  Milton, Hist. Eng., Wks. 1738, II. 38. Authors … in time not much belated, some of equal age.

1785.  Burke, Nab. Arcot’s Debts, Wks. 1842, I. 327. Who contested this belated account?

1857.  Ld. Dufferin, Lett. High Lat. (1867), 70. Our belated baggage-train.

1877.  Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., iii. (1877), 52. Information … got but slowly … to the ears of the belated ambassador.