Adjacent Words

Transitory definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TRANS'ITORY, a. [L. transitorius.] Passing without continuance; continuing a short time; fleeting; speedily vanishing.
O Lord, comfort and succor all them who, in this
transitory life, are in trouble.
1. In law, a transitory action, is one which may be brought in any county, as actions for debt, detinue, slander and the like. It is opposed to local.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: 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]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English transitorie, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin transitorius, from Latin, of or allowing passage, from transire Date: 14th century 1. tending to pass away ; not persistent 2. of brief duration ; temporary <the transitory nature of earthly joy> Synonyms: see transient • transitorily adverb • transitoriness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. not permanent, brief, transient. Phrases and idioms: transitory action Law an action that can be brought in any country irrespective of where the transaction etc. started. Derivatives: transitorily adv. transitoriness n. Etymology: ME f. AF transitorie, OF transitoire f. L transitorius (as TRANSIT)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Transitory Tran"si*to*ry, a. [L. transitorius: cf. F. transitoire. See Transient.] Continuing only for a short time; not enduring; fleeting; evanescent. Comfort and succor all those who, in this transitory life, are in trouble. --Bk. of Com. Prayer. It was not the transitory light of a comet, which shines and glows for a wile, and then . . . vanishes into nothing. --South. Transitory action (Law), an action which may be brought in any county, as actions for debt, and the like; -- opposed to local action. --Blackstone. Bouvier. Syn: transient; short-lived; brief. See Transient.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you say that something is transitory, you mean that it lasts only for a short time. Most teenage romances are transitory. = transient ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Transient, passing, fleeting, flitting, flying, temporary, evanescent, ephemeral, momentary, short, brief, fugacious, short-lived, of short duration, here to-day and gone to-morrow.

Moby Thesaurus

able to adapt, adaptable, adjustable, alterable, alterative, brief, brittle, capricious, changeable, checkered, circumforaneous, corruptible, deciduous, discursive, divagatory, drifting, dying, ephemeral, errant, evanescent, ever-changing, fading, fickle, fleeting, flexible, flitting, floating, fluid, fly-by-night, flying, footloose, footloose and fancy-free, fragile, frail, fugacious, fugitive, gadding, gypsy-like, gypsyish, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, inconstant, insubstantial, kaleidoscopic, landloping, malleable, many-sided, meandering, metamorphic, migrational, migratory, mobile, modifiable, momentary, mortal, movable, mutable, nomad, nomadic, nondurable, nonpermanent, nonuniform, passing, perishable, permutable, plastic, protean, proteiform, rambling, ranging, resilient, roaming, roving, rubbery, shifting, short-lived, short-term, straggling, straying, strolling, supple, temporal, temporary, traipsing, transient, transitive, transmigratory, transubstantiate, undurable, unenduring, unstable, vagabond, vagrant, variable, volatile, wandering