instantaneouslyadv.
In an instantaneous manner.
1. In an instant, in a moment; without any perceptible interval between beginning and completion.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > duration > shortness or brevity in time > [adverb] > instantaneously or with a short space of time
swiftlya1400
at one fling1556
at one (a) chop1581
per saltum1602
at one (fell, etc.) swoop1612
popa1625
instantaneously1644
in the catching up of a garter1697
in the drawing of a trigger1706
in a handclap1744
at a slap1753
momentaneously1753
in a whiff1800
in a brace or couple of shakes1816
bolt1839
at a single jeta1856
overnight1912
jiffy-quick1927
in two ups1934
1644 K. Digby Two Treat. ii. xii. 444 All pure spirits do worke instantaneously.
a1711 T. Ken Hymnotheo in Wks. (1721) III. 156 The Angels..Move Instantaneously from Space to Space, Thought is not quick enough to keep their Pace.
1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison II. xxxi. 301 Lady L. is, or seems to be, instantaneously reformed.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps ii. iii. 242 A vast portion of the sun's rays..can pass instantaneously through a thick sheet of water.
1863 ‘G. Eliot’ Romola II. ii. 24 The Florentines..instantaneously rushed between him and his captor.
2. In or at the particular instant.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > duration > shortness or brevity in time > [adverb] > instantaneously or with a short space of time > in or at the particular instant
instantaneously1858
1858 J. F. W. Herschel Outl. Astron. (ed. 5) xiii. 450 It does not follow..that the ellipse thus instantaneously determined will have the same elements as that similarly determined from the arc described in either the previous or the subsequent instant.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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adv.1644