Now (nou), adv. [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, νυ̑ν, 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. 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. “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.