This verb, familiar in the A.V. of the Bible, survived in the U.S. till a late period, and may occasionally be met with even now.
1778. His horse being something lame, he tarried all that day.—Maryland Journal, July 21.
1819. As it was late in the afternoon, my conductor concluded to “tarry,” as he called it, for the night.—“An Englishman” in the Western Star: Mass. Spy, May 12.
1819. I calculate to tarry with you here throughout the summer season.—Mass. Spy, Sept. 8: from the New Orleans Chronicle.
1892. The good monks who live at the sanctuary were, like ourselves, going to attend high mass at St. Francis’s Church below at ten, so we had no time to tarry.—The Nation, N.Y., Oct. 27, lv. 318/1. (N.E.D.)
