“now” – English explanatory dictionary

adv at this point in time ○ I can hear a train coming now. ○ Please can we go home now? ○ The flight is only two hours – he ought to be in Berlin by now. ○ Now’s the best time for going skiing. ○ A week from now we’ll be sitting on the beach. □ now and then from time to time, not continuously □ until now, up to now until this point in time ○ Until now, I’ve never had to see a doctor. ■ conj □ now that since, because ○ Now that I’ve got my driving licence, I can buy a car. ○ Now that you mention it, I do remember having a phone call from him last week. ■ interj 1. showing a warning ○ Now then, don’t be rude to the teacher! ○ Come on now, work hard! ○ Now, now! Nobody wants to hear you crying. 2. attracting someone’s attention ○ Now, everyone, let’s begin the meeting.

adv. [OE. nou, nu, AS. nu, nu; akin to D., OS., & OHG. nu, G. nu, nun, Icel., nu, Dan., Sw., & Goth. nu, L. nunc, Gr. , , Skr. nu, nu. rad.193. Cf. New.]
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.” Arbuthnot.
2. Very lately; not long ago. “They that but now, for honor and for plate,
Made the sea blush with blood, resign their hate.” Waller.
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.” Matt. xiv. 24.
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 ?” L’Estrange. “Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is ?” Shak. “Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber.” John xviii. 40. “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. 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.

a. Existing at the present time; present. [R.] ´Our now happiness.´ Glanvill.

n. The present time or moment; the present. “Nothing is there to come, and nothing past;
But an eternal now does ever last.” Cowley.