1. Pressing; urgent; importunate; earnest.
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in
prayer. Rom. xii. 12.
I am beginning to be very instant for some sort of occupation.
Carlyle.
2. Closely pressing or impending in respect to time; not deferred; immediate; without delay. Impending death is thine, and instant doom. Prior.
3. Present; current. The instant time is always the fittest time. Fuller.
Note: The word in this sense is now used only in dates, to indicate the current month; as, the tenth of July instant.
INSTANT
In"stant, adv.
Defn: Instantly. [Poetic]
Instant he flew with hospitable haste. Pope.
INSTANT In"stant, n. Etym: [F. instant, fr. L. instans standing by, being near, present. See Instant, a.]
1. A point in duration; a moment; a portion of time too short to be estimated; also, any particular moment. There is scarce an instant between their flourishing and their not being. Hooker.
2. A day of the present or current month; as, the sixth instant; — an elliptical expression equivalent to the sixth of the month instant, i. e., the current month. See Instant, a., 3.
Syn.
— Moment; flash; second.