Ephemeral

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ephemeral \E*phem"er*al\, a.
     1. Beginning and ending in a day; existing only, or no longer
        than, a day; diurnal; as, an ephemeral flower.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Short-lived; existing or continuing for a short time only.


        "Ephemeral popularity." --V. Knox.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Sentences not of ephemeral, but of eternal,
              efficacy.                             --Sir J.
                                                    Stephen.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Ephemeral fly} (Zo["o]l.), one of a group of neuropterous
        insects, belonging to the genus {Ephemera} and many allied
        genera, which live in the adult or winged state only for a
        short time. The larv[ae] are aquatic; -- called also {day
        fly} and {May fly}.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ephemeral \E*phem"er*al\, n.
     Anything lasting but a day, or a brief time; an ephemeral
     plant, insect, etc.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ephemeral
       adj : enduring a very short time; "the ephemeral joys of
             childhood"; "a passing fancy"; "youth's transient
             beauty"; "love is transitory but at is eternal";
             "fugacious blossoms" [syn: {passing}, {short-lived}, {transient},
              {transitory}, {fugacious}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  47 Moby Thesaurus words for "ephemeral":
     brief, brittle, capricious, changeable, corruptible, deciduous,
     dying, episodic, evanescent, evergreen, fading, fickle, fleeting,
     flitting, fly-by-night, flying, fragile, frail, fugacious,
     fugitive, half-hardy, hardy, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive,
     inconstant, insubstantial, momentary, mortal, mutable, nondurable,
     nonpermanent, passing, perennial, perishable, short, short-lived,
     subject to death, temporal, temporary, transient, transitive,
     transitory, undurable, unenduring, unstable, volatile