Adjacent Words

Transient definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TRANSIENT, a. tran'shent. [L. transiens, transeo; trans and eo.]
1. Passing; not stationary; hence, of short duration; not permanent; not lasting or durable. How transient are the pleasures of this life!
--Measur'd this transient world.
2. Hasty; momentary; imperfect; as a transient view of a landscape.
Transient person, a person that is passing or traveling through a place; one without a settled habitation.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: of a mental act; causing effects outside the mind [syn: transeunt, transient] [ant: immanent, subjective]
2: lasting a very short time; "the ephemeral joys of childhood"; "a passing fancy"; "youth's transient beauty"; "love is transitory but it is eternal"; "fugacious blossoms" [syn: ephemeral, passing, short-lived, transient, transitory, fugacious] n
1: one who stays for only a short time; "transient laborers"
2: (physics) a short-lived oscillation in a system caused by a sudden change of voltage or current or load

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Latin transeunt-, transiens, present participle of transire to cross, pass by, from trans- + ire to go — more at issue Date: 1599 1. a. passing especially quickly into and out of existence ; transitory <transient beauty> b. passing through or by a place with only a brief stay or sojourn <transient visitors> 2. affecting something or producing results beyond itself • transiently adverb Synonyms: transient, transitory, ephemeral, momentary, fugitive, fleeting, evanescent mean lasting or staying only a short time. transient applies to what is actually short in its duration or stay <a hotel catering primarily to transient guests>. transitory applies to what is by its nature or essence bound to change, pass, or come to an end <fame in the movies is transitory>. ephemeral implies striking brevity of life or duration <many slang words are ephemeral>. momentary suggests coming and going quickly and therefore being merely a brief interruption of a more enduring state <my feelings of guilt were only momentary>. fugitive and fleeting imply passing so quickly as to make apprehending difficult <let a fugitive smile flit across his face> <fleeting moments of joy>. evanescent suggests a quick vanishing and an airy or fragile quality <the story has an evanescent touch of whimsy that is lost in translation>. II. noun Date: 1652 1. one that is transient: as a. a transient guest b. a person traveling about usually in search of work 2. a. a temporary oscillation that occurs in a circuit because of a sudden change of voltage or of load b. a transient current or voltage

U.S. Military Dictionary

1. Personnel, ships, or craft stopping temporarily at a post, station, or port to which they are not assigned or attached, and having destination elsewhere. 2. An independent merchant ship calling at a port and sailing within 12 hours, and for which routing instructions to a further port have been promulgated. 3. An individual awaiting orders, transport, etc., at a post or station to which he or she is not attached or assigned.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 of short duration; momentary; passing; impermanent (life is transient; of transient interest). 2 Mus. serving only to connect; inessential (a transient chord). --n. 1 a temporary visitor, worker, etc. 2 Electr. a brief current etc. Derivatives: transience n. transiency n. transiently adv. Etymology: L transire (as TRANS-, ire go)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Transient Tran"sient, n. That which remains but for a brief time. --Glanvill.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Transient Tran"sient, a. [L. transiens, -entis, p. pr. of transire, transitum, to go or pass over. See Trance.] 1. Passing before the sight or perception, or, as it were, moving over or across a space or scene viewed, and then disappearing; hence, of short duration; not permanent; not lasting or durable; not stationary; passing; fleeting; brief; transitory; as, transient pleasure. ``Measured this transient world.'' --Milton. 2. Hasty; momentary; imperfect; brief; as, a transient view of a landscape. 3. Staying for a short time; not regular or permanent; as, a transient guest; transient boarders. [Colloq. U. S.] Syn: Transient, Transitory, Fleeting. Usage: Transient represents a thing as brief at the best; transitory, as liable at any moment to pass away. Fleeting goes further, and represents it as in the act of taking its flight. Life is transient; its joys are transitory; its hours are fleeting. What is loose love? A transient gust. --Pope If [we love] transitory things, which soon decay, Age must be loveliest at the latest day. --Donne. O fleeting joys Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes. --Milton. -- Tran"sient*ly, adv. -- Tran"sient*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Transient is used to describe a situation that lasts only a short time or is constantly changing. (FORMAL) ...the transient nature of high fashion... ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Passing, fleeting, temporary, soon past, soon passing, flying, flitting, brief, fugitive. 2. Hasty, momentary, imperfect, short.

Moby Thesaurus

able to adapt, adaptable, adjustable, adventurer, alpinist, alterable, alterative, arising, astronaut, board-and-roomer, boarder, brief, brittle, camper, capricious, changeable, checkered, circumforaneous, climber, comers and goers, coming, commuter, compact, compendious, concise, corruptible, cosmopolite, cruiser, curt, curtal, curtate, deciduous, decurtate, disappearing, discursive, dissolving, divagatory, drifting, dying, emanating, emanative, emanent, emergent, emerging, ephemeral, errant, evanescent, evaporating, ever-changing, excursionist, explorer, fading, fare, fickle, fleeting, flexible, flitting, floating, fluid, fly-by-night, flying, footloose, footloose and fancy-free, forthcoming, fragile, frail, fugacious, fugitive, gadding, globe-girdler, globe-trotter, goer, gypsy-like, gypsyish, hajji, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, inconstant, instantaneous, insubstantial, issuing, jet set, jet-setter, journeyer, kaleidoscopic, landloping, lessee, little, lodger, low, malleable, many-sided, mariner, meandering, melting, metamorphic, migrational, migratory, mobile, modifiable, momentaneous, momentary, mortal, mountaineer, movable, mutable, nomad, nomadic, nondurable, nonpermanent, nonuniform, palmer, passenger, passer, passerby, passing, pathfinder, paying guest, perishable, permutable, pilgrim, pioneer, plastic, protean, proteiform, rambling, ranging, renter, resilient, roaming, roomer, roving, rubberneck, rubbernecker, rubbery, sailor, shifting, short, short and sweet, short-lived, short-term, sightseer, sojourner, straggling, straphanger, straying, strolling, subject to death, succinct, summary, supple, surfacing, synoptic, temporal, temporary, temporary lodger, tenant, tourer, tourist, trailblazer, trailbreaker, traipsing, transeunt, transient guest, transitive, transitory, transmigratory, traveler, trekker, tripper, underlessee, undurable, unenduring, unstable, vagabond, vagrant, vanishing, variable, viator, visiting fireman, volatile, voortrekker, voyager, voyageur, wandering, wayfarer, world-traveler