- Now and then
- Now Now (nou), 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. ny`, ny^n, Skr. nu, n[=u]. [root]193. Cf.
{New}.]
[1913 Webster]
1. At the present time; at this moment; at the time of
speaking; instantly; as, I will write now.
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I have a patient now living, at an advanced age, who discharged blood from his lungs thirty years ago. --Arbuthnot. [1913 Webster]
2. Very lately; not long ago. [1913 Webster]
They that but now, for honor and for plate, Made the sea blush with blood, resign their hate. --Waller. [1913 Webster]
3. At a time contemporaneous with something spoken of or contemplated; at a particular time referred to. [1913 Webster]
The ship was now in the midst of the sea. --Matt. xiv. 24. [1913 Webster]
4. In present circumstances; things being as they are; -- hence, used as a connective particle, to introduce an inference or an explanation. [1913 Webster]
How shall any man distinguish now betwixt a parasite and a man of honor? --L'Estrange. [1913 Webster]
Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is? --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber. --John xviii. 40. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
{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. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
