continue vs delay

continue

verb
  • To adjourn, prorogue, put off. 

  • To make a continuation bet. 

  • To retain (someone or something) in a given state, position, etc. 

  • To proceed with (doing an activity); to prolong (an activity). 

  • To remain in a given place or condition; to remain in connection with; to abide; to stay. 

  • To make last; to prolong. 

  • To resume. 

noun
  • An option allowing the player to resume play after game over, when all lives have been lost, while retaining their progress. 

delay

verb
  • To put off until a later time; to defer. 

  • To retard; to stop, detain, or hinder, for a time. 

noun
  • A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity. 

  • An audio effects unit that introduces a controlled delay. 

  • Synonym of promise (“object representing delayed result”) 

  • An amount of time provided on each move before one's clock starts to tick; a less common time control than increment. 

How often have the words continue and delay occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )