What does "deferral" mean in the context of a work queue?

In the context of a work queue, "deferral" refers to the action of temporarily freezing items that cannot be processed at the moment for various reasons, such as waiting for additional information or resources. This allows the items to remain in the queue while preventing them from being processed further until the conditions necessary for processing are met.

This mechanism helps to manage workloads effectively while ensuring that no items are permanently lost or forgotten. It allows for better prioritization of tasks, as items can be deferred and revisited later when they're actionable. The other options represent different actions that could be taken with items in a work queue, but they do not capture the essence of what deferral means – which is about taking a pause rather than deleting, archiving, or reallocating items.