- the momentary present
"Now is a good time to do it"
"it worked up to right now"

- in these times
"it is solely by their language that the upper classes nowadays are distinguished"- Nancy Mitford
"we now rarely see horse-drawn vehicles on city streets"
"today almost every home has television"

- without delay or hesitation

- with no time intervening
"he answered immediately"
"found an answer straightaway"
"an official accused of dishonesty should be suspended forthwith"
"Come here now!"

- used to preface a command or reproof or request
"now hear this!"
"now pay attention"

- at the present moment
"goods now on sale"
"the now-aging dictator"
"they are now abroad"
"he is busy at present writing a new novel"
"it could happen any time now"

- in the historical present

- at this point in the narration of a series of past events
"President Kennedy now calls in the National Guard"
"Washington now decides to cross the Delaware"
"the ship is now listing to port"

- in the immediate past
"told me just now"

- (prefatory or transitional) indicates a change of subject or activity
"Now the next problem is..."

1. At the present time; at this moment; at the time of speaking; instantly; as, I will write now.

"I have a patient now living, at an advanced age, who discharged blood from his lungs thirty years ago." -- Arbuthnot.

2. Very lately; not long ago.

"They that but now, for honor and for plate, Made the sea blush with blood, resign their hate." -- Waller.

3. At a time contemporaneous with something spoken of or contemplated; at a particular time referred to.

"The ship was now in the midst of the sea." -- Matt. xiv. 24.

4. In present circumstances; things being as they are; -- hence, used as a connective particle, to introduce an inference or an explanation.

"How shall any man distinguish now betwixt a parasite and a man of honor ?" -- L'Estrange.

"Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is ?" -- Shak.

"Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber." -- John xviii. 40.

"The other great and undoing mischief which befalls men is, by their being misrepresented. Now, by calling evil good, a man is misrepresented to others in the way of slander." -- South.

Now and again
now and then; occasionally.

Now and now
again and again; repeatedly. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Now and then
at one time and another; indefinitely; occasionally; not often; at intervals. "A mead here, there a heath, and now and then a wood." Drayton.

Now now
at this very instant; precisely now. [Obs.] "Why, even now now, at holding up of this finger, and before the turning down of this." J. Webster (1607).

Now . . . now
alternately; at one time . . . at another time. "Now high, now low, now master up, now miss." Pope.

1. Existing at the present time; present. [R.] "Our now happiness." Glanvill.

1. The present time or moment; the present.

"Nothing is there to come, and nothing past; But an eternal now does ever last." -- Cowley.