 |
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Nonce \Nonce\ (n[o^]ns), noun [For the nonce, OE. for the nones, a corruption of for then ones, where n. in then is a relic of AS. m in [eth]am, dat. of the article and demonstrative pronoun, E. the. See {For}, {Once}, and {The}.] The one or single occasion; the present call or purpose; -- chiefly used in the phrase
{for the nonce}, i. e. for the present time.
The miller was a stout carl for the nones. --Chaucer.
And that he calls for drink, I 'll have prepared him A chalice for the nonce. --Shak.
{Nonce word}, ''a word apparently employed only for the nonce''. --Murray (New English Dict.).
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
nonce
noun: the present occasion; "for the nonce" [syn: {time being}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
31 Moby Thesaurus words for "nonce": contemporaneity, contemporaneousness, historical present, modernity, newness, now, nowadays, nowness, our times, present, present tense, presentness, the Now Generation, the nonce, the now, the present, the present age, the present day, the present hour, the present juncture, the present time, the time being, the times, these days, this day, this hour, this instant, this moment, this point, this stage, today
 |
Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |