Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Occurring at once; happening without delay.
- adjective Of or near the present time.
- adjective Of or relating to the present time and place; current.
- adjective Close at hand; near: synonym: close.
- adjective Next in line or relation.
- adjective Acting or occurring without the interposition of another agency or object; direct.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not separated from its object or correlate by any third or medium; directly related; independent of any intermediate agency or action: opposed to remote: as, an immediate cause.
- Having no space or object intervening; nearest; proximate; having the closest relation: as, immediate contact; the immediate neighborhood.
- Without any time intervening; without any delay; present; instant: often used, like similar absolute expressions, with less strictness than the literal meaning requires: as, an immediate answer; immediate despatch.
- In metaphysics, indemonstrable; intuitive; of the character of a direct perception not worked over by the mind.
- Knowledge of an object as it exists, so that the qualities of our cognition are the qualities of the thing-in-itself.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Not separated in respect to place by anything intervening; proximate; close.
- adjective Not deferred by an interval of time; present; instant.
- adjective Acting with nothing interposed or between, or without the intervention of another object as a cause, means, or agency; acting, perceived, or produced, directly.
- adjective (Surg.) an amputation performed within the first few hours after an injury, and before the the effects of the shock have passed away.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective happening right away,
instantly , with nodelay - adjective Very
close ;direct oradjacent .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective immediately before or after as in a chain of cause and effect
- adjective performed with little or no delay
- adjective of the present time and place
- adjective having no intervening medium
- adjective very close or connected in space or time
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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And this is a question which demands immediate attention -- _immediate_ attention; for more than £26,000,000 are paid by taxpayers each year to be spent in great part on our wretched system of poor laws.
Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman Giberne Sieveking
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Idealists discredit the veracity of consciousness as to our immediate knowledge of material phenomena, and, consequently, our _immediate knowledge of the existence of matter_. [
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The term immediate is used in contrast with that of gradual.
The Conflict with Slavery, Part 1, from Volume VII, The Works of Whittier: the Conflict with Slavery, Politics and Reform, the Inner Life and Criticism John Greenleaf Whittier 1849
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The term immediate is used in contrast with that of gradual.
The Conflict with Slavery and Others, Complete, Volume VII, The Works of Whittier: the Conflict with Slavery, Politics and Reform, the Inner Life and Criticism John Greenleaf Whittier 1849
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The term immediate is used in contrast with that of gradual.
The Complete Works of Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier 1849
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They include what he called immediate cuts to the costs of maintaining Italy's bulky political class as well as significant measures to fight tax evasion.
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They include what he called immediate cuts to the costs of maintaining Italy's bulky political class as well as significant measures to fight tax evasion.
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Around the February time frame, we were running to a point where our fund balance was getting below what we were comfortable with, having to deal with existing disasters and future disasters, so we go into what we call immediate needs funding.
Nashville Scene 2010
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An "immediate" withdrawal, a la Obama, is totally unrealistic and would result in immediate genocide of those Iraquis who have helped and supported our troops.
Gates: Next president likely to take 'sensible approach' to Iraq 2008
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He was later led out of the courtroom and placed in immediate custody.
Richard Mcclanahan 2010
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