Deferred sentence

Imagine you did something bad and got in trouble for it. But instead of punishing you right away, the judge says "I'm going to wait and see how you behave before deciding what punishment you should get."

So you have to promise to be really good for a certain amount of time. If you do that, the judge might decide not to punish you at all! But if you break your promise and do something bad again during that time, the judge will punish you even more than before.

That's kinda like what a deferred sentence is. Instead of getting punished right away, you have a chance to "make things right" before the judge decides how to punish you.