instant
Definitions
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"Thomas John next instant was sitting on the floor." -
WordNet 3.6
- adj instant demanding attention "clamant needs","a crying need","regarded literary questions as exigent and momentous"- H.L.Mencken","insistent hunger","an instant need"
- adj instant occurring with no delay "relief was instantaneous","instant gratification"
- adj instant in or of the present month "your letter of the 10th inst"
- n instant a particular point in time "the moment he arrived the party began"
- n instant a very short time (as the time it takes the eye to blink or the heart to beat) "if I had the chance I'd do it in a flash"
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Interesting fact: During World War II the U.S. government used 260 million pounds of instant coffee.
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- Instant 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.
- Instant 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."
- Instant Closely pressing or impending in respect to time; not deferred; immediate; without delay. "Impending death is thine, and instant doom."
- adv Instant Instantly. "Instant he flew with hospitable haste."
- Instant Present; current. "The instant time is always the fittest time."
- Instant 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."
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
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Interesting fact: First Instant Replay was used during Army Navy Football Game at Municipal Stadium Philadelphia on December 7, 1963, invented by Tony Verna (CBS Director.)
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- instant Present; current; now passing: as, on the 8th of June instant; the 10th instant (that is, the 10th day “in the present month,” Latin instante mense).
- instant Immediate; with no interval of time intervening; instantaneous.
- instant Immediate in succession; very next.
- instant Insistent; urgent; earnest; pressing.
- n instant A particular point of time regarded as present.
- n instant A point in duration; a moment; a very small period or interval of time: as, he will return in an instant.
- n instant Application; instance.
- n instant Synonyms Minute, etc. See moment.
- instant Instantly; very soon.
- instant To importune; urge.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
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Interesting fact: If a small amount of liquor were placed on a scorpion, it would instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
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- adj Instant in′stant pressing, urgent: immediate: quick: without delay: present, current, as the passing month
- n Instant the present moment of time: any moment or point of time
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Quotations
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“Books had instant replay long before televised sports.” -
“One belongs to New York instantly. One belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” -
“The enjoyment of life would be instantly gone if you removed the possibility of doing something.”
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“All evil is like a nightmare; the instant you stir under it, the evil is gone.” -
“False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade.” -
“Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice.”
Idioms
In an instant - If something happens in an instant, it happens very rapidly.
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Etymology
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
L. instans, -antis, p. pr. of instare, to stand upon, to press upon; pref. in-, in, on + stare, to stand: cf. F. instant,. See Stand
Usage
In literature:
The whole fleet paused an instant as if hurt and terrified, but in another instant it went on again.
"The Riflemen of the Ohio" by Joseph A. Altsheler
In an instant her torpor was shaken off.
"A Son of Hagar" by Sir Hall Caine
At the same instant the difficulties of his position rushed upon him and demanded an instant solution.
"Casa Braccio, Volumes 1 and 2 (of 2)" by F. Marion Crawford
Instantly she leaped from the tub, shook down the skirts, snatched up shoes and stockings, and fled barefooted to the house.
"The Fighting Edge" by William MacLeod Raine
The instant he disappeared Eve caught up the knife he had dropped, knelt down on the blanket and fell to cutting it into strips.
"The Flaming Jewel" by Robert W. Chambers
For an instant the two men looked deep into each other's eyes.
"El Diablo" by Brayton Norton
Her hesitation lasts only for an instant.
"The Wild Huntress" by Mayne Reid
The defenceless settlement of Cossimbazar, lying close to the tyrant's capital, was instantly seized.
"Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3)" by Thomas Babington Macaulay
All this was the work of an instant.
"The Cryptogram" by James De Mille
For an instant she seemed to glance in Peter's direction.
"Peter the Brazen" by George F. Worts
For an instant he seemed unable to speak.
"Counsel for the Defense" by Leroy Scott
In an instant he was beside himself with rage and pain.
"In the Morning of Time" by Charles G. D. Roberts
An instant before or an instant after would be fatal.
"Tales of Fishes" by Zane Grey
In an instant the battle had begun.
"The Night Riders" by Ridgwell Cullum
Instantly I got out of bed.
"The Golden Woman" by Ridgwell Cullum
In an instant it was all over, but in that instant the Easterner had lived years.
"The Mountain Divide" by Frank H. Spearman
In that instant Dorothy's companion called a cab and placed the girl in it.
"Pretty Madcap Dorothy" by Laura Jean Libbey
Over the heads of the crowd his eyes caught his wife's and held them for an instant.
"The Girl in the Mirror" by Elizabeth Garver Jordan
But for an instant she forced her eyes to meet those of the man and then they suddenly filled with tears.
"The Coming of the Law" by Charles Alden Seltzer
At any rate, in that instant the whole trend of his purpose took a new turn.
"The Silent Barrier" by Louis Tracy
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In poetry:
Then do, as oft before you've done,
And instantly appears,
A planet which about the sun
Revolves once in three years.
And instantly appears,
A planet which about the sun
Revolves once in three years.
"Enigma XII." by Elizabeth Hitchener
To Peter on the waves he came,
And gave him instant peace;
Thus he to me revealed his name,
And bid my sorrows cease.
And gave him instant peace;
Thus he to me revealed his name,
And bid my sorrows cease.
"Peter Walking Upon The Water" by John Newton
That instant as the murderer spake
There came a sudden light;
Strong as the mid-day sun it shone,
Though all around was night.
There came a sudden light;
Strong as the mid-day sun it shone,
Though all around was night.
"Jaspar" by Robert Southey
His joyous spirits rising soon,
He instantly struck up a tune:
But here we are oblig'd to tell,
As his notes rose, her spirits fell.
He instantly struck up a tune:
But here we are oblig'd to tell,
As his notes rose, her spirits fell.
"The Jealous Head" by William Hutton
I would not let him rest;
Not one instant cleave, cling like a blot with his breast to
the wall
In an obscure corner.
Not an instant!
Not one instant cleave, cling like a blot with his breast to
the wall
In an obscure corner.
Not an instant!
"Man And Bat" by D H Lawrence
The shriek again was heard. It came
More deep, more piercing loud,
That instant o'er the flood the moon
Shone through a broken cloud.
More deep, more piercing loud,
That instant o'er the flood the moon
Shone through a broken cloud.
"Lord William" by Robert Southey
In news:
I was instantly impressed with her dedication to her animals.
In the playoffs, a series can change dramatically in an instant.
Drivers, sponsors and teams can change in an instant.
"Instant" Collections are Among Improvements.
With Pitch Perfect, his irreverent new comedy about a cappella singers, Avenue Q director Jason Moore creates another instant classic about outsiders.
Drop by the instant coverage through our live chat, which is, er, live.
In a world where everyone has access instantly to what is said on the other side of the planet, free speech has to reckon with millions of new 'free listeners'.
It was one of America's most shocking political sex scandals, instantly transforming New York Gov Eliot Spitzer -- who had terrified Wall Street during his political climb -- into the infamous "Client 9".
In one instant, Glee 's Max Adler went from a stereotypical high school thug to a deeply complex character, and all it took was a single kiss.
2 teaspoons instant or rapid rise yeast.
Get a long, lean silhouette in an instant with a floor-dusting skirt.
Nescafe introduces a foaming instant-coffee beverage.
A few simple tricks — and yes, a little paint — can create an instant update.
1 cup rolled oats (not instant).
Admittedly, the project is a little dangerous—not because of a few little fusion reactions but because of the the very flammable gas and voltages high enough to instantly kill you.
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In science:
These pairs cool off instantly via synchrotron radiation process.
Neutron Stars as Sources of High Energy Particles - the case of RPP
Equation 10a describes the loss of connections for all the automata with connectivity 10 at instant t.
Self-Organized Critical Random Boolean Networks
In particular von Neumann’s nonrelativistic formulation of quantum theory is built on the Newtonian concept of the instants of time, ‘now’, each of which extends over all space.
Quantum theory and the role of mind in nature
However, Einstein’s theory of relativity rejected, at least for the classical physical theory that it was originally designed to cover, the idea that the Newtonian concept of the instant “now” could have any ob jective meaning.
Quantum theory and the role of mind in nature
It has effective instants “now”, namely the TomonagaSchwinger surfaces σ .
Quantum theory and the role of mind in nature
In this region particles are aligned in a line for each instant time when particle are close to origin.
Mechanism of synchronization in a random dynamical system
Each line stands for a snapshot for a given instant time.
Mechanism of synchronization in a random dynamical system
It follows from (2) and (3) that the retarded wave represents the positive-energy solution and reaches a point at the distance r after the instant of radiation emission.
Wheeler-Feynman Absorber Theory Viewed by Model of Expansive Nondecelerative Universe
The molecules of a gas in equilibrium is a simple example of an ensemble; the speeds of the molecules at any instant of time have Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, denoted by p(v).
Monte Carlo: Basics
For the instants in the blocks starting with a ˜σ — notice that the leftmost one may be empty but all the other contain at least one instant — the walk perfo rms horizontal moves, for blocks starting with a ˜τ the walk performs vertical moves.
Random walks on randomly oriented lattices
It’s clear that this is normal shift for initial instant of time t = 0.
On the concept of normal shift in non-metric geometry
However, in general, orthogonality of σt and shift tra jectories gets broken at any other instant of time t 6= 0.
On the concept of normal shift in non-metric geometry
These hypersurfaces represent the position of wave at various time instants, so we can say that wave propagates moving along tra jectories of Hamiltonian dynamical system (1.9).
On the concept of normal shift in non-metric geometry
Solutions of these differential equations form 2n-dimensional linear space T, while components of vector-function τ (t) and covector-function ξ(t) for any fixed time instant t = t0 can be treated as coordinates in T.
On the concept of normal shift in non-metric geometry
This ensures that at any instant the simulated disk has a sound speed coinciding with the observed velocity dispersion.
On the Spiral Structure of NGC 2915 and Dark Matter
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