now and now

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

1.At the present time; at this moment; at the time of speaking; instantly; as, I will write now. [1913 Webster]

I have a patient now living, at an advanced age, who discharged blood from his lungs thirty years ago.— Arbuthnot.[1913 Webster]

2.Very lately; not long ago. [1913 Webster]

They that but now, for honor and for plate, Made the sea blush with blood, resign their hate.— Waller.[1913 Webster]

3.At a time contemporaneous with something spoken of or contemplated; at a particular time referred to. [1913 Webster]

The ship was now in the midst of the sea.— Matt. xiv. 24.[1913 Webster]

4.In present circumstances; things being as they are; -- hence, used as a connective particle, to introduce an inference or an explanation. [1913 Webster]

How shall any man distinguish now betwixt a parasite and a man of honor?— L'Estrange.[1913 Webster]

Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is?— Shak.[1913 Webster]

Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber.— John xviii. 40.[1913 Webster]

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.[1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]