Immediate

Part of speech: adjective (a.)

1. Not separated in respect to place by anything intervening; proximate; close; as, immediate contact. You are the most immediate to our throne. Shak.

2. Not deferred by an interval of time; present; instant. "Assemble we immediate council." Shak. Death . . . not yet inflicted, as he feared, By some immediate stroke. Milton.

3. Acting with nothing interposed or between, or without the intervention of another object as a cause, means, or agency; acting, perceived, or produced, directly; as, an immediate cause. The immediate knowledge of the past is therefore impossible. Sir. W. Hamilton. Immediate amputation (Surg.), an amputation performed within the first few hours after an injury, and before the the effects of the shock have passed away.

Synonyms: Proximate; close; direct; next.