to postpone

[dilodi83]

1) All school sports matches will be postponed until the exams are finished.
2) I'm afraid we will have to postpone our lesson due to the heavy rain.
3) Since I cannot postpone the meeting, I guess I'll go there later.

My question is the following one: I have studied that in English there are some Phrasal Verbs we can use to mean the concept of "postpone something" and they are "to hold over", to "put off" and "to put back". Now can I substitute these two verbs to "to postpone" in the sentences above? and, can I use "to hold over", "to put off" and "to put back" without any distinction in meaning? Are they synonyms?

Thanks so much for your explanation.

[JohnParis]

Roget's thesaurus gives these synonyms for postpone:

put off/back, delay, defer, reschedule, adjourn, shelve, put over, take a rain check on; informal put on ice, put on the back burner.

Almost all would work in the three examples you provided.

John

[SoothingDave]

I would add that "postpone" is the idiomatic word for delaying a sporting event, especially in case of weather.

[5jj]

put off/back, delay, defer, reschedule, adjourn, shelve, put over, take a rain check on; informal put on ice, put on the back burner.

Almost all would work in the three examples you provided.

I agree with SoothingDave that 'postpone' is the most natural for #1. Of the thesaurus suggestions, I think only put off/back and, possibly, shelved are likely alternatives in that sentence.

In #2, only put off/back, delay, defer, shelve work for me.

Rescheduled would need 'after' instead of 'until' in both #1 and #2.

In all of them, I think we can only adjourn something after it has started.

[dilodi83]

I agree with SoothingDave that 'postpone' is the most natural for #1. Of the thesaurus suggestions, I think only put off/back and, possibly, shelved are likely alternatives in that sentence.

In #2, only put off/back, delay, defer, shelve work for me.

Rescheduled would need 'after' instead of 'until' in both #1 and #2.

In all of them, I think we can only adjourn something after it has started.

And what do you think about "hold over"? What difference do you, native speakers, find among these three phrasal verbs? How to use these three correctly?

[bhaisahab]

And what do you think about "hold over"? What difference do you, native speakers, find among these three phrasal verbs? How to use these three correctly?

Of your original three examples, only "put off" and "put back" work for me, I am not familiar with "hold over".

[Mohammadhelmi]

postpone

to defer , to put off, to put off , to delay , to adjourn ,

yes, you can use them in your sentnces.

[5jj]

to defer , to put off, to put off , to delay , to adjourn ,

yes, you can use them in your sentnces.

Have you read posts #3 to #6?

[dilodi83]

Have you read posts #3 to #6?

yes of couse I have, but nobody has talked about "hold over" so far...
Isn't it used at all both in American and in British English?