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[ adverb ] without delay; with no time intervening
Examples "he answered immediately" "found an answer straightaway" "an official accused of dishonesty should be suspended forthwith" "Come here now!" Used in print (James Boylan, "Mutinity"...)For he seemed to sense at_once that before him was no South_Sea , but the solid bulk of the North_American continent . (Kenneth Allsop, The Bootleggers and Their Era...)`` But when I arrived and recognised a number of notorious characters I had thrown into the detective bureau basement half_a_dozen times , I knew I had been framed , and withdrew almost at_once '' . (James Bryant Conant, Slums and Suburbs...)Practically all_of these practical skills are of such a nature that a degree of mastery can be obtained in high_school sufficient to enable the youth to get a job at_once on the basis of the skill . Similarly , a girl who graduates with a good working knowledge of stenography and the use of clerical machines and who is able to get a job at_once may wish to improve her skill and knowledge by a year or two of further study in a community_college or secretarial_school . (Charles Wharton Stork, "Verner von Heidenstam"...)Being somewhat delicate in health , at the age of sixteen he was sent to Southern Europe , for which he at_once developed a passion , so that he spent nearly all_of the following ten years abroad , at_first in Italy , then in Greece , Egypt , Asia_Minor , and Palestine . Related terms |
| 2 |
[ adverb ] without delay or hesitation; with no time intervening
Examples "he answered immediately" "found an answer straightaway" "an official accused of dishonesty should be suspended forthwith" "Come here now!" Related terms |
| 3 |
[ adverb ] simultaneously
Synonyms Examples "he took three cookies at a time" Used in print (Richard F. McLaughlin, et al., "A study of the...)Such a dual derivation was strikingly demonstrated during the injection process where initial filling would be noted to occur in several isolated pleural vessels at_once . (Guy Bolton, The Olympians....)William , he was called , in honor of the man who was at_once Shelley 's pensioner and his most bitter detractor . (S. J. Perelman, The Rising Gorge. New York:...)Not long_ago , I rode down with him in an elevator in Radio_City ; he was talking to himself thirteen to the dozen and smoking two cigars at_once , clearly a man in_extremis . |
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