- very close or connected in space or time
"contiguous events"
"immediate contact"
"the immediate vicinity"
"the immediate past"

- having no intervening medium
"an immediate influence"

- performed with little or no delay
"an immediate reply to my letter"
"prompt obedience"
"was quick to respond"
"a straightaway denial"

- immediately before or after as in a chain of cause and effect
"the immediate result"
"the immediate cause of the trouble"

- of the present time and place
"the immediate revisions"

1. Not separated in respect to place by anything intervening; proximate; close; as, immediate contact.

"You are the most immediate to our throne." -- Shak.

2. Not deferred by an interval of time; present; instant. "Assemble we immediate council." Shak.

"Death . . . not yet inflicted, as he feared, By some immediate stroke." -- Milton.

3. Acting with nothing interposed or between, or without the intervention of another object as a cause, means, or agency; acting, perceived, or produced, directly; as, an immediate cause.

"The immediate knowledge of the past is therefore impossible." -- Sir. W. Hamilton.

Immediate amputation
(Surg.), an amputation performed within the first few hours after an injury, and before the the effects of the shock have passed away.

Syn. -- Proximate; close; direct; next.