It delays manoeuvres consistently (8)
I believe the answer is:
steadily
'consistently' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'it delays manoeuvres' is the wordplay.
'manoeuvres' is an anagram indicator.
'it'+'delays'='itdelays'
'itdelays' is an anagram of 'STEADILY'.
(Other definitions for steadily that I've seen before include "Regularly, constantly" , "Surely and regularly" , "with regularity" , "At a regular pace" , "Unfalteringly; gradually" .)