now

alternative Geordie Scotland dialectal noo

1. not comparablePresent; current.

   Defects seem as necessary to our now happiness as their Opposites.

   17th century, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; in an Essay of the Vanity of Dogmatizing and Confident Opinion, published 1885, page 207

   5 more examples

   […] to my now wife Mabell, my child Elisabeth, & my child now begotten, &c., and they to be joint Exõrs, & if all die, then the same jointly to my brother William Every & my sisters Sarah Skibbowe & Joan Brice.

   1630 November 19, Alexander Every, will quoted in 1887, Frederick Arthur Crisp, Abstracts of Somersetshire Wills Etc: Copied from the Manuscript Collections of the Late Rev. Frederick Brown, M.A., F.S.A., page 75

   The history of the infant colonies teaches us that the country comprised within the limits of the now United States of America was originally patented in the reign of James I., of England, into two portions: that in less than eighty years from that period, the same was again divided into twelve distinct provinces; a thirteenth being after added in the creation of the State of Georgia.

   1855, Conrad Swackhamer, The United States democratic review, volume 5

   Where in assumpsit for money lent, the defendant pleaded that in an action in which the now defendant was plaintiff, and the now plaintiff was defendant,[…].

   1908, The English reports

   Radio 4's continuity announcer said at the end of the show: "As many of you will have noticed, that edition of The Now Show wasn't very now. It was actually last week's programme. Our apologies for that."

   2010 March 17, “Radio 4 apologises for day old shipping forecast”, in The Daily Telegraph, archived from the original on 07 Jul 2013

   For example, the organization has groundlessly denounced Elon Musk, a powerful libertarian voice, as an antisemite in a baldfaced effort to drain his social network, X, of advertising revenue. Yet, when now-Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) came to the defense of his uncle for antisemitic remarks he made in the ’90s, the organization refused to condemn him.

   2024 February 16, Mike Howell, “Partnership With ADL Compromises FBI’s Integrity and Fairness”, in The Daily Signal

2. informalnot comparableFashionable; popular; up to date; current.

   I think this band's sound is very now.

   2 more examples

   ADAM: I was just thinking, I... (sees the lyre) Hey, brother, do you play? Is it Vulcan? Can I try it? // (Spock gestures his permission and Adam strums a chord) // ADAM: Ho ho, that's now! That's real now! I reach that, brother. I really do. // (He hands the lyre to Spock who plays it briefly)

   1969 February 21, Charles Napier, quotee, The Way to Eden (Star Trek: The Original Series), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC

   Bernard: What does it do? Fran: It's very in. Bernard: You don't know what it is, do you? Fran: It's very now.

   2000, “Cooking the Books”, in Black Books, season 1, episode 1 (television production)

alternative Geordie Scotland dialectal noo

1. not comparableAt the present time.

   Now I am six.

   3 more examples

   Stop that now, Jimmy!

   I could have been Secretary of State now if I hadn’t left politics five years ago.

   We can’t phone now – they will certainly have gone to bed.

2. not comparableUsed to introduce a point, a qualification of what has previously been said, a remonstration or a rebuke.

   Now, Jimmy, stop that.

   3 more examples

   Now, we all want what is best for our children.

   Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter III, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 43

   “I don’t stare at her,” Steve insisted quickly. “It’s just that every once in a while she is looking at me when I look out the window.” / “A peeping Thomasina.” / “Now, Harry.” / “Well, it’s her name. Elizabeth Thomas.”

   1949, Isabella Taves, “That Unpredictable Look”, in The American Magazine, volume CXLVII, Springfield, Oh.: The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 38

3. not comparableDifferently from the immediate past; differently from a more remote past or a possible future; differently from all other times.

   Now I am ready.

   3 more examples

   We all now want the latest toys for our children.

   We all want what is now best for our children.

   Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

4. not comparableAt the time reached within a narration.

   Now he remembered why he had come.

   2 more examples

   He now asked her whether she had made pudding.

   The pudding was now ready to be served.

5. not comparableUsed to indicate a context of urgency.

   Now listen, we must do something about this.

6. informalnot comparableAt the present point of a recurring cycle or event.

   I always used to do my shopping now, to avoid the rush.

7. not comparableobsoleteVery recently; not long ago; up to the present.

   They that but now, for honour and for plate, / Made the sea blush with blood, resign their hate.

   c. 1656, Edmund Waller, Of a War with Spain, and Fight for Sea

8. not comparableusually emphasizedUsed to address a switching side, or sharp change in attitude from before.

   Now, you want to protect me. An hour ago, you were mercilessly bullying me!

9. not comparableSometimes; occasionally; used to list a series of often assumed states.

   His face fit his roles: now smiling, now earnest, now glowering, now raging.

   1 more example

   And then they stood about, as soldiers do; now, with their hands loosely clasped before them; now, resting a knee or a shoulder; now, easing a belt or a pouch; now, opening the door to spit stiffly over their high stocks, out into the yard.

   1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter V, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 63

alternative Geordie Scotland dialectal noo

1. oftenSince, because, in light of the fact.

   Now that you mention it, I am kind of hungry.

   4 more examples

   Now all the children have grown up and left, the house is very quiet.

   Now that my sister has gotten rid of their cat, we can go to her house this coming Thanksgiving.

   We can play football now that the rain has stopped.

   Now that we're all here, let's start the meeting.

alternative Geordie Scotland dialectal noo

1. Indicates a signal to begin.

   Now! Fire all we've got while the enemy is in reach!

plural nows · alternative Geordie Scotland dialectal noo

1. uncountableusuallyThe present time.

   Now is the right time.

   1 more example

   There is no better time than now.

2. oftenuncountableusuallyThe state of not paying attention to the future or the past.

   She is living in the now.

   Synonyms: here and now, as-is, here and now, present

3. countableusuallyA particular instant in time, as perceived at that instant.

   Forever is composed of Nows— / 'T is not a different time, / Except for infiniteness / And latitude of home.

   a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “Forever is composed of Nows”, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Alfred Leete Hampson, editors, Further Poems of Emily Dickinson, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company, published 1929, page 25

   1 more example

   Time is not thrust together and summed up out of nows, but the reverse: with reference to the now we can articulate the stretching out of time always only in specific ways.

   1982, Albert Hofstadter, The Basic Problems of Phenomenology, translation of original by Martin Heidegger, page 249

1. misspellingMisspelling of know.

   I don't now.

1. USabbreviationacronymAcronym of National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization.

plural NOWs

1. USabbreviationacronymbusinessAcronym of negotiable order of withdrawal (“an instrument similar to a check”).