Instant
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( a.) Present; current.
(2): ( a.) Closely pressing or impending in respect to time; not deferred; immediate; without delay.
(3): ( adv.) Instantly.
(4): ( a.) A point in duration; a moment; a portion of time too short to be estimated; also, any particular moment.
(5): ( a.) 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.
(6): ( a.) Pressing; urgent; importunate; earnest.
King James Dictionary [2]
IN'STANT, a. L. instans, insto.
1. Pressing urgent importunate earnest.
Rejoicing in hope patient in tribulation continuing instant in prayer. Romans 12
2. Immediate without intervening time present.
Impending death is thine and instant doom.
3. Quick making no delay.
Instant he flew with hospitable haste.
4. Present current. On the tenth of July instant.
IN'STANT, n. A point in duration a moment a part of duration in which we perceive no succession, or a part that occupies the time of a single thought.
1. A particular time.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [3]
INSTANT . ‘Instant’ and ‘instantly’ are now used only of time. In AV [Note: Authorized Version.] they have their earlier meaning of ‘urgent,’ ‘urgently,’ as in Luke 23:23 ‘they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified’; Luke 7:4 ‘they besought him instantly’ (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘earnestly’). Cf. Erasmus, Paraphrase , i. 31, ‘whoso knocketh at the doore instantly, to him it shal be opened.’
Smith's Bible Dictionary [4]
Instant. In the Authorized Version, means Urgent, Urgently or Fervently, as will be seen from the following passages: Luke 7:4; Luke 23:23; Acts 26:7; Romans 12:12.
Holman Bible Dictionary [5]
Isaiah 29:5 Isaiah 30:15 Jeremiah 18:7-9 Luke 23:23 Romans 12:12 2 Timothy 4:2
