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Now and then   /naʊ ənd ðɛn/   Listen
adverb
Now  adv.  
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."
2.
Very lately; not long ago. "They that but now, for honor and for plate, Made the sea blush with blood, resign their hate."
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."
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?" "Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is?" "Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber." "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."
Now and again, now and then; occasionally.
Now and now, again and again; repeatedly. (Obs.)
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."
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."
Now... now, alternately; at one time... at another time. "Now high, now low, now master up, now miss."


Then  adv.  
1.
At that time (referring to a time specified, either past or future). "And the Canaanite was then in the land." "Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
2.
Soon afterward, or immediately; next; afterward. "First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."
3.
At another time; later; again. "One while the master is not aware of what is done, and then in other cases it may fall out to be own act."
By then.
(a)
By that time.
(b)
By the time that. (Obs.) "But that opinion, I trust, by then this following argument hath been well read, will be left for one of the mysteries of an indulgent Antichrist."
Now and then. See under Now, adv.
Till then, until that time; until the time mentioned. Note: Then is often used elliptically, like an adjective, for then existing; as, the then administration.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Now and then" Quotes from Famous Books



... fresh evening breeze. It was almost country; the grass grew upon the sidewalks, springing up in the road between the broken pavements. A poppy flashed here and there upon the tops of the low walls. They met very few people; now and then some poor person, a woman in a cap dragging along a crying child, a workman burdened with his tools, a belated invalid, and sometimes in the middle. of the sidewalk, in a cloud of dust, a flock of exhausted sheep, bleating desperately, ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... for the ship there was a comparatively quiet sea, but towards two o'clock there was a squall, a breeze sprang up, and all the afternoon a gale has been blowing, with occasional hailstorms. The sea is covered with white caps and the wind sweeping over it. Every now and then we can see a ring of spray being blown along which is called a "whilly" by the people and is thought to denote danger. The men must be having a very bad time of it. We are anxiously awaiting their return; it is now five o'clock and there ...
— Three Years in Tristan da Cunha • K. M. Barrow
... Nan to order whatever she pleased, and they dawdled over their meal luxuriously, the color in the girl's cheeks deepening with the warmth and excitement until it almost matched the velvet in her imposing hat. Every now and then she glanced furtively at her reflection in the mirror, and the vision of that bird-of-paradise hovering over those huge butterfly bows thrilled her with a great sense of importance and self-satisfaction. More ...
— The Governess • Julie M. Lippmann
... is lovely and uplifting and will get a man into heaven, and on the other hand there is the realism that works. The fact that the Jews cling to both, thus running, as it were, upon two tracks, is what makes them so puzzling, now and then, to the goyim. In one aspect they stand for the most savage practicality; in another aspect they are dreamers of an almost fabulous other-worldiness. My own belief is that the essential Jew is the idealist—that his occasional flashing of hyena teeth is no ...
— Damn! - A Book of Calumny • Henry Louis Mencken
... been made, between herself and her husband, to that famous dinner-party: he never spoke to her of the Mutual Credit Society; but now and then he allowed some words or exclamations to escape, which she carefully recorded, and which betrayed ...
— Other People's Money • Emile Gaboriau


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