INSTANT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Instant

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/ˈɪnstənt/ Listen

adjective

Instant adj.

Pressing; urgent; importunate; earnest. "Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer." "I am beginning to be very instant for some sort of occupation."

Closely pressing or impending in respect to time; not deferred; immediate; without delay. "Impending death is thine, and instant doom."

Present; current. "The instant time is always the fittest time." Note: The word in this sense is now used only in dates, to indicate the current month; as, the tenth of July instant.

noun

Instant n.

A point in time; a moment; a portion of time too short to be estimated; also, any particular moment; as, teh situation may change in an instant. "There is scarce an instant between their flourishing and their not being."

A day of the present or current month; as, the sixth instant; an elliptical expression equivalent to the sixth of the month instant, i. e., the current month. See Instant, a., 3.

Synonyms: Moment; flash; second.

adverb

Instant adv. Instantly. (Poetic) "Instant he flew with hospitable haste."

See images of 'Instant'

Etymology of 'Instant'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Instant" Quotes from Famous Books

... they do all this; and now they start forward and come unexpectedly upon the maidens' retreat! They pause for an instant in mute apology, but the girls smile their forgiveness, and the youths hurry ...

— Indian Child Life • Charles A. Eastman

... touching sight, but the hunter is without pity for what he deems his lawful game. In an instant I had pulled both triggers, and both barrels had sent forth their united ...

— The Hunters' Feast - Conversations Around the Camp Fire • Mayne Reid

... For an instant Scipio's face flushed. Then it paled icily under its tan. His brain was struggling to grasp something which seemed to be slowly enveloping him, but which his honest heart would not let him believe. He stared stupidly at Vada's dirty face. Then, as the child withdrew to her play, he suddenly ...

— The Twins of Suffering Creek • Ridgwell Cullum

... contrary, after he had swept forwards like a tornado for a matter of fifty yards or so he paused, as if in search of some fresh devilment, and espied a girl beating her way up the street and carrying a roll of music rather loosely in the crook of her arm. In an instant he had snatched the roll away and sent the sheets spread-eagling up the street, looking like so many big white butterflies as they flapped and whirled deliriously ...

— The Splendid Folly • Margaret Pedler

... that lie she was smiling and imperturbable; she played with her fan; but if any one had passed a hand down her back they would, perhaps, have found it moist. At that instant Auguste remembered ...

— Ferragus • Honore de Balzac

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