Learning new words

demur \dih-MUR\, intransitive verb:
1. To object; to take exception.
2. To delay.
noun:
1. The act of demurring.
2. Objection.
3. Delay.

It had been Letitia's wish, not Thaddeus's, that there
should be a child but, while wondering at the time what it
was going to be like to have a baby about the place, he did
not demur, and soon after Georgina's birth was surprised to
find his feelings quite startlingly transformed.
--William Trevor, [1]Death in Summer

She would ask to see something I had written, and I would
demur, saying that anything I had written was terrible, and
she would persist until I gave in and said, "If you
insist," and later she would proclaim that my work was not
terrible, my work was terrific.
--Rosemary Mahoney, [2]A Likely Story

All the same, she succeeded in exacting from him the
promise that ... he would depart Milan forthwith. Beyle
accepted this condition without demur and left Milan.
--W.G. Sebald, [3]Vertigo (translated by Michael Hulse)

One member of the staff who left his pass at home wrote on
the temporary pass he was given the name 'Heinrich Himmler'
and was admitted without demur.
--Noel Annan, [4]Changing Enemies
_______________________________________________________

Demur comes from Old French demorer, "to linger, to stay,"
from Latin demorari, from de- + morari, "to delay, to loiter,"
from mora, "a delay."