Instant

Instant - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

IN'STANT, a. [L. instans, insto.]

1. Pressing; urgent; importunate; earnest.

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. Rom 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.

Instantly - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

IN'STANTLY, adv. Immediately; without any intervening time; at the moment.

Lightning often kills instantly.

1. With urgent importunity.

And when they came to Jesus,they besought him instantly, saying, that he was worthy for whom he should do this. Luke 7.

2. With diligence and earnestness. Acts 26.

in'-stant, in'-stant-li: Derivative from Latin instare. Found in English with various meanings from the 15th century to the present time.

Instant is used once in Isa 29:5 in the sense of immediate time; elsewhere in the sense of urgent, pressing; Lu 23:23, where "were instant" is the King James Version translation of the verb epekeinto; Ro 12:12, where it is involved in the verb proskartereo; compare Ac 6:4. In 2Ti 4:2 it stands for the expressive verb epistethi, "stand to."

Instantly (urgently, steadfastly) is the King James Version rendering of two different Greek phrases, spoudaios, found in Lu 7:4; and en ekteneia, in Ac 26:7. In both cases the American Standard Revised Version renders "earnestly."

Russell Benjamin Miller