momentary

comparative more momentary · superlative most momentary

1. Lasting for only a moment.
2. obsoleteHappening at every moment; perpetual.
3. Ephemeral or relatively short-lived.

   Tony's face expressed relief, and Nettie sat silent for a moment until the vicar said “It was a generous impulse, but it may have been a momentary one,[…].”

   1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Yet oh! what an immense difference did I feel between this impression of a pleasure merely animal, and struck out of the collision of the sexes by a passive bodily effect, from that sweet fury, that rage of active delight which crowns the enjoyments of a mutual love-passion, where two hearts, tenderly and truly united, club to exalt the joy, and give it a spirit and soul that bids defiance to that end which mere momentary desires generally terminate in, when they die of a surfeit of satisfaction!

   Fanny Hill

   1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC

   My eyes are bleeding / They've searched for someone else / Addicted to the hunt / And end up somewhere else / Where the expendable souls go / There must be more to this / I'm right in here / Stare through a glass wall / I tell you this my friend / We must be bigger / Than momentary bliss / Don't let the light you see restrain you / Don't put your trust in the dark outside / There will be more than you ever could die for / This momentary bliss is a lie / 'Cause my eyes they are bleeding / I'm off to treasure a brand new emotion / I'm taking off like a demon of fate / I reckon something will see my devotion

   2013, “This Momentary Bliss”, in The Living Infinite, performed by Soilwork