Now
Now (nou) , adverb
[Old English nou, nu, Anglo-Saxon nū, nu; akin to Dutch, Old Saxon, & Old High German nu, German nu, nun, Icelandic, nū, Danish, Swedish, & Gothic nu, Latin nunc, Greek ny`, ny^n, Sanskrit nu, nū. r193. Compare 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.
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.
Collocations (5)
Now and again , now and then; occasionally.
Now and now , again and again; repeatedly. [Obsolete] — 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.
Now now , at this very instant; precisely now. [Obsolete] 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.
Now , adjective
Existing at the present time; present. [Rare]
Our now happiness.
Now , noun
The present time or moment; the present.
Nothing is there to come, and nothing past;
But an eternal now does ever last.