Word.ws English Dictionary

upon the instant

upon the instant adverb: immediately, right away.

Adverb

upon the instant (not comparable)

  1. (dated, idiomatic) Immediately, right away.
    • Light flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn.1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 42
    • Or, if you shall so prefer to choose, a new province of knowledge and new avenues to fame and power shall be laid open to you, here, in this room, upon the instant; and your sight shall be blasted by a prodigy to stagger the unbelief of Satan.1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Dr. Lanyon’s Narrative”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 103

Synonyms of upon the instant

16 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Questions about upon the instant

What does upon the instant mean?
Upon the instant means immediately, right away.
What part of speech is upon the instant?
Upon the instant is an adverb.

Words near upon the instant in the dictionary

  1. upon the back of
  2. upon the books
  3. upon the by
  4. upon the carpet
  5. upon the heels of
  6. upon the instant
  7. upon the matter
  8. upon the pad
  9. upon the point of
  10. upon the square
  11. upon the strength of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: upon the instant (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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