N. transience, transientness, evanescence, impermanence, fugacity, caducity, mortality, span, nine days' wonder, bubble, mayfly, spurt, flash in the pan, temporary arrangement, interregnum, velocity, suddenness, changeableness, transient, transient boarder, transient guest

V. be transient, flit, pass away, fly, gallop, vanish, fade, evaporate, pass away like a cloud, pass away like a summer cloud, pass away like a shadow, pass away like a dream

Adj. transient, transitory, transitive, passing, evanescent, fleeting, cursory, short-lived, ephemeral, flying, fugacious, fugitive, shifting, slippery, spasmodic, instantaneous, momentaneous, temporal, temporary, provisional, provisory, deciduous, perishable, mortal, precarious, unstable, insecure, impermanent, brief, quick, brisk, extemporaneous, summary, pressed for time, sudden, momentary

Adv. temporarily, pro tempore, for the moment, for a time, awhile, en passant, in transitu, in a short time, soon, briefly, at short notice, on the point of, on the eve of, in articulo, between cup and lip

Phr. one's days are numbered, the time is up, here today and gone tomorrow, non semper erit aestas, eheu, fugaces labuntur anni, sic transit gloria mundi, a schoolboy's tale, the wonder of the hour, [Byron], dum loquimur fugerit invidia aetas, fugit hora, all that is transitory is but an illusion

N. {ant. 133} earliness, morning, punctuality, promptitude, haste, suddenness, prematurity, precocity, precipitation, anticipation, a stitch in time

V. be early, be beforehand, keep time, take time by the forelock, anticipate, forestall, have the start, gain the start, steal a march upon, gain time, draw on futurity, bespeak, secure, engage, preengage, accelerate, expedite, make haste

Adj. early, prime, forward, prompt, summary, premature, precipitate, precocious, prevenient, anticipatory, rath, sudden, unexpected, near, near at hand, immediate

Adv. early, soon, anon, betimes, rath, eft, eftsoons, ere long, before long, shortly, beforehand, prematurely, precipitately, too soon, before its time, before one's time, in anticipation, unexpectedly, suddenly, before one can say "jack robinson", at short notice, extempore, on the spur of the moment, on the spur of the occasion, at once, on the spot, on the instant, at sight, offhand, out of hand, a' vue d'oeil, straight, straightway, straightforth, forthwith, incontinently, summarily, immediately, briefly, shortly, quickly, speedily, apace, before the ink is dry, almost immediately, presently at the first opportunity, in no long time, by and by, in a while, directly

Phr. no sooner said than done, immediately, if not sooner, tout vient a temps pour qui sait attendre

N. conciseness, brevity, "the soul of wit", laconism, tacitus, ellipsis, syncope, abridgment, compression, epitome, monostich, brunch word, portmanteau word

V. be concise, condense, abridge, abstract, come to the point

Adj. concise, brief, short, terse, close, to the point, exact, neat, compact, compressed, condensed, pointed, laconic, curt, pithy, trenchant, summary, pregnant, compendious, succinct, elliptical, epigrammatic, quaint, crisp, sententious

Adv. concisely, briefly, summarily, in brief, in short, in a word, in a few words, for shortness sake, to come to the point, to make a long story short, to cut the matter short, to be brief, it comes to this, the long and the short of it is

Phr. brevis esse laboro obscurus fio