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present Definition

pres·ent (prez′ənt; for v. prē zent′, pri-)

adjective

    1. being at the specified or understood place; at hand; in attendance
    2. existing (in a particular thing) nitrogen is present in the air
  2. of or at this time; existing or happening now; in progress
  3. now being discussed, considered, written, read, etc. the present writer
  4. Archaic readily available, effective, etc.
  5. Obsolete
    1. self-possessed; collected
    2. paying attention
  6. Gram. indicating action as now taking place (Ex.: she goes) or state as now existing (Ex.: the plums are ripe), action that is habitual (Ex.: he speaks with an accent), or action that is always the same (Ex.: the clock strikes twelve at noon)

Etymology: OFr < L praesens, prp. of praeesse, to be present < prae-, before (see pre-) + esse, to be (see essence)

noun

  1. the present time
  2. Obsolete the present occasion
    1. the present words or writings
    2. Law this very document know by these presents
  4. Gram.
    1. the present tense
    2. a verb form in this tense

  5. Etymology: OFr, in phr. mettre en present à, to put before (someone), present, offer, hence a gift

    something presented, or given; gift

transitive verb pre·sent′

  1. to bring (a person) into the presence of, and introduce formally to, another or others
    1. to honor (someone), esp. formally, with a gift, award, etc. the mayor presented him with the keys to the city
    2. to provide or confront (someone) with something this presents us with a difficult problem
    1. to offer for viewing or notice; exhibit; display; show
    2. to offer (a show, exhibit, etc.) to the public
  4. to offer for consideration to present a plan, opportunity, etc.
  5. to give (a gift, donation, award, etc.) to a person, organization, etc.
  6. to hand over, give, or send (a bill, credentials, etc.) to someone
  7. to represent, depict, or interpret in the manner indicated
  8. to point or aim (a weapon, etc.)
  9. to nominate to an ecclesiastical benefice
  10. Law
    1. to put before a legislature, court, etc. for consideration
    2. to bring a charge or indictment against

Etymology: ME presenten < OFr presenter < L praesentare, to place before, lit., to make present < praesens: see presentthe

intransitive verb pre·sent′

to come before a physician (with a particular symptom, medical history, etc.)

present Idioms

pre·sent′· arms

Mil.
  1. to hold a rifle vertically in front of the body, with the muzzle up: a position of salute
    1. this position
    2. the command to assume it
present Synonyms

present

modif.

  1. Near in time

    now, existing, being, in process, in duration, begun, started, commenced, going on, under consideration, at this time, contemporary, contemporaneous, coeval, ad hoc, immediate, instant, prompt, at this moment, at present, today, nowadays, already, even now, but now, just now, for the time being, for the nonce, for the occasion; see also modern 1, now 1.

    Antonyms past*, over*, completed. *

  2. Near in space

    in view, at hand, within reach; see near 1.

present Synonyms

present

n.

  1. The present time

    instant, this time, present moment, now; see today.

  2. A gift

    gift, grant, donation; see gift 1. See syn. study at gift.

present Synonyms

present

v.

  1. To introduce

    make known, acquaint with, give an introduction; see introduce 3.

  2. To display

    exhibit, show, manifest; see display 1.

  3. To suggest

    imply, infer, intimate; see hint.

  4. To submit

    donate, proffer, put forth, sponsor; see offer 1.

  5. To give

    grant, bestow, confer; see give 1.

  6. To give a play, etc.

    put on, do, impersonate; see act 3, perform 2. See syn. study at give.

present Usage Examples

Object

  • finding: In 1640 a further perambulation was held and its findings presented to a Survey Court in August of the following year.
  • paper: In June he presented a seminar paper on 'A Year of President Putin ' , also at the same venue.
  • challenge: The scale of change presents a major challenge to the Council and its partners.
  • overview: In Part I, ' Theoretical Foundations ' , the authors present an overview of peer mentoring for postgraduates ( sec.
  • evidence: Where appropriate, the Reply must include any application for leave to present new evidence under 2.6 below.
  • opportunity: SSPs present an ideal opportunity to address these issues.

Preposition: at

  • conference: Each of the above papers has been presented at conferences by either Vivien Beattie or Bill.
  • ceremony: Then there's the witness who must be present at the ceremony.
  • meeting: A senior Fire Service officer is normally present at each meeting.

Modifies a noun

  • day: In the present day, ' common carrier ' status applies now only in US law.
  • situation: In general, the present international security situation has continued to tend toward relaxation.
  • moment: We use our strength in the present moment to bring those who are weak to God.
  • state: A generic description of the present state of alert for nuclear weapons of NATO countries and Russia.
  • position: Kelly persuaded Burgoyne to resign his present position to take on the task of introducing Tintara wines to the British market.
  • case: In the present case there was no formal board.

Noun used with modifier

  • birthday: Whenever asked what her favorite birthday present was, the reply is always ' dizzy lizzie ' .

Used with why or when

  • which: A planning framework that encourages creativity was presented which can be applied to a lesson or sequence of lessons across the age range.

Preposition: in

  • format: Relevant details of the primary studies were presented in tabular format.
  • manner: The use of unnecessarily complicated notation and formulae should be avoided and the material should be presented in the simplest possible manner.

Preposition: with

  • certificate: After the feeding ( presuming you have survived ) you are presented with a certificate as a memento.
present Quotes

   In1914, Europe had arrived at a point at which every country except Germany was afraid of the present, and Germany was afraid of the future.

—Grey of Fallodon, Edward Grey, 1st Viscount

The alcohol made the present enough, it held her in its golden hand, where past and future were comprehended, where nothing mattered, nothing was lost, where everything could be known and forgiven, where she herself could be whole at last.

—Gee, Maggie

It was a bitter birthday present from evolution.

—Dillard, Annie

Les enfants n'ont ni passe¤   ni avenir, et, ce qui ne nous arrive gue'  re, ils jouissent du pre¤  sent. Children have neither past nor future. They live in the present, something which rarely happens to us.

—La Bruye'  re,Jean de

   One usually understands the art of the past by applying the conventions of the present thus misunderstanding the art of the past.

—LeWitt, Sol

The unending dialogue between the present and the past.

—Carpentier, Alejo

En toi je vis, o  u' que tu sois absente; En moi je meurs, o  u' que je sois pre¤  sent. Tant loin sois-tu, toujours tu es pre¤  sente; Pour pre'  s que sois, encore suis-je absent. I live in you, wherever you are, when you are absent; I die in myself wherever I am. No matter how faraway you are, you are always present; And no matter how near you are, I am always absent.

—Sce'  ve, Maurice

Life is all memory except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going.

—Williams,TennesseeThomas Lanier

Sothat finding myself at present inorabout onehundred and twenty degrees off east longitude from England, it bred in me a desire to proceed on the same easterly course till I had ended where I began, and so to have once made one circle round the globe of the earth, which would have been a voyage of voyages.

—Mundy, Peter

When a Forsyte was engaged, married, or born, the Forsytes were present; when a Forsyte diedöbut no Forsyte had as yet died; they did not die; death being contrary to their principles, they took precautions against it, the instinctive precautions of highly vitalised persons who resent encroachments on their property.

—Galsworthy,John

For the present at any rate, I must proceed alone. I must plough my own furrow aloneöbut before I get to the end of that furrow, it is possible that I may not find myself alone.

—Rosebery, Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of

The future is made of the same stuff as the present.

—Weil, Simone

Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futuritycastsuponthepresent; thewordswhichexpress what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

'They gave it me,' Humpty Dumpty continued thoughtfully† 'for an un-birthday present.'

—Dodgson

   Not Eve, whose fault was only too much love, Which made her give this present to her dear, That what she tasted he likewise might prove, Whereby his knowledge might become more clear; He never sought her weakness to reprove With those sharp words which he of God did hear; Yet men will boast of knowledge, which he took From Eve's fair hand, as from a learned book.

—Lanyer, Aemilia

C'est l'actuel qui compte. Invoquer sa poste¤  rite¤  , c'est faire un discours aux asticots. It isthepresentthatcounts.To invoke one'sposterity isto make a speech to maggots.

—Destouches

Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present: fear, avarice, lust and ambition look ahead.

—Lewis, C(live) S(taples)

   For the rational study of the law the blackletter man may be the man of the present, but the man of the future is the man of statistics and the master of economics.

—Holmes, Oliver Wendell,Jr

Whatever our forefathers were, or whatever they did or suffered, or were enforced to yield unto, we are the men of the present age, and ought to be absolutely free from all kinds of exorbitancies, molestations, or arbitrary power.

—Overton, Robert

Contrary to popular belief, the past was not more eventful than the present. If it seems so it is because when you look backward things that happened years apart are telescoped together, and because very few of your memories come to you genuinely virgin.

—Orwell, George pseudonym of  Eric Arthur Blair

There's no crime like the present.

—WashingtonTimes

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.

—Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

She was cut off fromthe past and therefore did not live in the present. But suddenly, as she stood close against a pine tree and breathed in its sharp, bitter scent, a clear space opened to her childhood, as though a wind had sprung fromthesea, clearing a mist.It wasnot a memory from the past, it was the past itself, as alive, as real; and she knew that she and the child of forty years ago were the same person.

—Thomas, D(onald) M(itchell)

Derivative writers seem versatile because they imitate many others, past and present. Artistic originality has only itself to copy.

—Nabokov,Vladimir

Al the povere peple tho pescoddes fetten; Benes and baken apples thei broghte in hir lappe, Chibolles and chervelles and ripe chiries manye, And profrede Piers this present to plese with Hunger.

—Langland,William

History is past politics, and politics is present history.

—Freeman, Edward Augustus

The past was nothing to her† The future was a mystery which she never attempted to penetrate. The present alone was significant.

—Chopin, Kate (Katherine) ne¤  e  O'Flaherty

It wassaid of Metternichthat hewasso conservativethat had he been present at the Creation, he would have begged God to have retained Chaos.

—Evans, Bergen

Why is itthat girls so constantlydothis, so frequentlyask men who have loved them to be present at their marriages with other men? There is no triumph in it. It is done in sheer kindness and affection. They intend to offer something whichshall softenand not aggravatethe sorrow that they have caused† I fully appreciate the intention, but in honest truth,I doubt the eligibility of the proffered entertainment.

—Trollope, Anthony

The Pastöthe dark unfathom'd retrospect! The teeming gulföthe sleepers and the shadows! The past! the infinite greatness of the past! For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?

—Whitman,Walt(er)

The politics of our society are a conversation in which past, present and future each has a voice; and though one or other of them may on occasion properly prevail none permanently dominates, and on this account we are free.

—Oakeshott, Michael Joseph

Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

The present is anage of talkers, and not of doers; and the reason is, that the world isgrowing old.We are so far advanced in the Arts and Sciences, that we live in retrospect, and dote on past achievement.

—Hazlitt,William

Meanwhile, we too admit that the present is an important time† We were wise indeed, could we discern truly the signs of our own time; and by knowledge of its wants and advantages, wiselyadjust our own position in it.

—Carlyle,Thomas

The present is burthened too much with the past.

—Hawthorne, Nathaniel

The present is the funeral of the past, And man the living sepulchre of life.

—Clare,John

Happily, there is nothing in the laws of value which remains for the present or any future writer to clear up; the theory of the subject is complete.

—Mill,John Stuart

He who desires and acts not, breeds pestilence.

—Blake,William

A novelist is, like all mortals, more fully at home on the surface of the present than in the ooze of the past.

—Nabokov,Vladimir

Our work is to present things that are as theyare.

—Frederick II

The function of the artist is to disturb. His duty is to arousethesleeper, toshakethe complacent pillars ofthe world.He reminds the world of its dark ancestry, and shows the world its present, and points the way to its new birth.He isat oncetheproduct and thepreceptorof his time.

—Bethune, Norman

We are always acting on what just finished happening. It happened at least1/30th of a second ago. We think we're inthe present, but wearen't.The present we know is onlya movie of the past.

—Kesey, Ken Elton

What if this present were the world's last night?

—Donne,John

   'Who controls the past,'ran the Party slogan,'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'

—Orwell, George pseudonym of  Eric Arthur Blair