now adverb [OE. nou, nu, AS. nū, nu; akin to D., OS., & OHG. nu, G. nu, nun, Icel., nū, Dan., Sw., & Goth. nu, L. nunc, Gr. νύ, νῦν, Skr. nu, nū. √193. Cf. New.]

1. At the present time; at this moment; at the time of speaking; instantly; as, I will write now.

I have a patient now living, at an advanced age, who discharged blood from his lungs thirty years ago. Arbuthnot.

2. Very lately; not long ago.

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

3. At a time contemporaneous with something spoken of or contemplated; at a particular time referred to.

The ship was now in the midst of the sea. Matt. xiv. 24.

4. In present circumstances; things being as they are; – hence, used as a connective particle, to introduce an inference or an explanation.

How shall any man distinguish now betwixt a parasite and a man of honor? L’Estrange.

Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is? Shak.

Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber. John xviii. 40.

The other great and undoing mischief which befalls men is, by their being misrepresented. Now, by calling evil good, a man is misrepresented to others in the way of slander. South.

Now and again

now and then; occasionally.

Now and now

again and again; repeatedly. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Now and then

at one time and another; indefinitely; occasionally; not often; at intervals.
“A mead here, there a heath, and now and then a wood.” Drayton.

Now now

at this very instant; precisely now. [Obs.]

“Why, even now now, at holding up of this finger, and before the turning down of this.” J. Webster (1607).

Now . . . now

alternately; at one time . . . at another time.

“Now high, now low, now master up, now miss.” Pope.

Now adjective Existing at the present time; present. [R.]

“Our now happiness.” Glanvill.

Now noun The present time or moment; the present.

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past;
But an eternal now does ever last. Cowley.