INSTANT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • 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

... prison, compelled, in order to reach their own homes, to pass the same spot, and thus that which was merely a measure of precaution, in its operation increased the evil it was intended to prevent. Almost at the same instant that the alarm bell rung, (but whether before or subsequent is upon the evidence doubtful, though captain Shortland states it positively as one of his further reasons for causing it to ring) some one or ...

— A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. • Benjamin Waterhouse

... there, thoughtlessly talking for an instant with Raymonde, who was standing on the other side of the cord, holding a bowl of milk which she was about to carry to a paralysed old woman; and Berthaud ordered the young fellow to post two men at the entrance gate of the iron railing, with instructions ...

— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola

... it was one of those wonderful still nights that sometimes come in the mountain-country when the wind is silent in the notches and the stars seem to burn nearer to the earth. Cynthia awoke and lay staring for an instant at the red planet which hung over the black and ragged ridge, and then she arose quickly and knocked at the door across ...

— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... late and full early they rose, And church-ward they rode more than half in a doze: The steed in an instant broke off from the throng, And pierced the green ...

— Gryll Grange • Thomas Love Peacock

... appeared two years after, and some selections from it, and others from unpublished manuscript, were printed separately in the volume entitled 'Spare Hours.' They met with instant and unprecedented success. In a short time ten thousand copies of 'Minchmoor' and 'James the Doorkeeper' were sold, fifteen thousand copies of 'Pet Marjorie,' and 'Rab' had reached its fiftieth thousand. With all this ...

— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 6 • Various

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