now

Alternative forms

• nowe

Adjective

now (not comparable)

1. Present; current.
   • 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:

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

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

     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.

   • 1908, The English reports:

     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, […] .

   • 2010 March 17, “Radio 4 apologises for day old shipping forecast”, in The Daily Telegraph‎:

     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."

2. (informal) Fashionable; popular; up to date; current.

   I think this band's sound is very now.

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

     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.

3. (archaic, law) At the time the will is written. Used in order to prevent any inheritance from being transferred to a person of a future marriage. Does not indicate the existence of a previous marriage.

   Now wife.

Adverb

now (not comparable)

1. At the present time.

   Now I am six.

   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 certaintly have gone to bed.

2. (sentential) Used to introduce a point, a qualification of what has previously been said, a remonstration or a rebuke.

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

   Now Jimmy, stop that.

   • 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:

     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.

3. Differently from the immediate past; differently from a more remote past or a possible future; differently from all other times.

   Now I am ready.

   We all now want the latest toys for our children.

   We all want what is now best for our children.

   • 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:

     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.

4. At the time reached within a narration.

   Now he remembered why he had come.

   He now asked her whether she had made pudding.

   The pudding was now ready to be served.

5. Used to indicate a context of urgency.

   Now listen, we must do something about this.

6. (informal) At the present point of a recurring cycle or event.

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

7. (obsolete) As 'but now': Very recently; not long ago; up to the present.
   • c. 1656, Edmund Waller, Of a War with Spain, and Fight for Sea:

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

8. Used to address a switching side, or sharp change in attitude from before. (In this usage, now is usually emphasized).

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

9. Sometimes; occasionally; used to list a series of often assumed states.

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

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

     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.

Conjunction

now

1. Since, because, in light of the fact; often with that.

   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 you mention it, I am kind of hungry.

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

Interjection

now!

1. Indicates a signal to begin.

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

Noun

now (usually uncountable, plural nows)

1. (uncountable) The present time.

   Now is the right time.

   There is no better time than now.

2. (often with "the") The state of not paying attention to the future or the past.

   Synonyms: here and now; see also Thesaurus:the present

   She is living in the now.

3. (countable, chiefly in phenomenology) A particular instant in time, as perceived at that instant.
   • 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:

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

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

     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.

References

• “now”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Verb

now

1. Misspelling of know.

   I don't now. (intended: I don't know.)