Definitions for: Now


[n] the momentary present; "Now is a good time to do it"; "it worked up to right now"
[adv] in these times; "it is solely by their language that the upper classes nowadays are distinguished"- Nancy Mitford; "we now rarely see horse-drawn vehicles on city streets"; "today almost every home has television"
[adv] without delay; with no time intervening; "he answered immediately"; "found an answer straightaway"; "an official accused of dishonesty should be suspended forthwith"; "Come here now!"
[adv] used to preface a command or reproof or request; "now hear this!"; "now pay attention"
[adv] at the present moment; "goods now on sale"; "the now-aging dictator"; "they are now abroad"; "he is busy at present writing a new novel"; "it could happen any time now"
[adv] in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events; "President Kennedy now calls in the National Guard"; "Washington now decides to cross the Delaware"; "the ship is now listing to port"
[adv] in the immediate past; "told me just now"
[adv] (prefatory or transitional) "Now the next problem is..."



Webster (1913) Definition: Now, adv. [OE. nou, nu, AS. n[=u], nu; akin to D., OS., &
OHG. nu, G. nu, nun, Icel., n[=u], Dan., Sw., & Goth. nu, L.
nunc, Gr. ?, ?, Skr. nu, n[=u]. [root]193. Cf. New.]
1. At the present time; at this moment; at the time of
speaking; instantly; as, I will write now.

I have a patient now living, at an advanced age, who
discharged blood from his lungs thirty years ago.
--Arbuthnot.

2. Very lately; not long ago.

They that but now, for honor and for plate, Made the
sea blush with blood, resign their hate. --Waller.

3. At a time contemporaneous with something spoken of or
contemplated; at a particular time referred to.

The ship was now in the midst of the sea. --Matt.
xiv. 24.

4. In present circumstances; things being as they are; --
hence, used as a connective particle, to introduce an
inference or an explanation.

How shall any man distinguish now betwixt a parasite
and a man of honor ? --L'Estrange.

Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is ? --Shak.

Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but
Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber. --John xviii.
40.

The other great and undoing mischief which befalls
men is, by their being misrepresented. Now, by
calling evil good, a man is misrepresented to others
in the way of slander. --South.

Now and again, now and then; occasionally.

Now and now, again and again; repeatedly. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

Now and then, at one time and another; indefinitely;
occasionally; not often; at intervals. ``A mead here,
there a heath, and now and then a wood.'' --Drayton.

Now now, at this very instant; precisely now. [Obs.] ``Why,
even now now, at holding up of this finger, and before the
turning down of this.'' --J. Webster (1607).

Now . . . now, alternately; at one time . . . at another
time. ``Now high, now low, now master up, now miss.''
--Pope.


Now, a.
Existing at the present time; present. [R.] ``Our now
happiness.'' --Glanvill.


Now, n.
The present time or moment; the present.

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past; But an
eternal now does ever last. --Cowley.

Synonyms: at once, at present, directly, forthwith, immediately, in real time, instantly, nowadays, right away, straight off, straightaway, today

See Also: nowadays, present

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