immediate
    adj 1: of the present time and place; "the immediate revisions"
    2: very close or connected in space or time; "contiguous
       events"; "immediate contact"; "the immediate vicinity"; "the
       immediate past" [syn: contiguous, immediate]
    3: having no intervening medium; "an immediate influence" [ant:
       mediate]
    4: immediately before or after as in a chain of cause and
       effect; "the immediate result"; "the immediate cause of the
       trouble"
    5: performed with little or no delay; "an immediate reply to my
       letter"; "a prompt reply"; "was quick to respond"; "a
       straightaway denial" [syn: immediate, prompt, quick,
       straightaway]

Immediate \Im*me"di*ate\, a. [F. imm['e]diat. See In- not, and
   Mediate.]
   1. Not separated in respect to place by anything intervening;
      proximate; close; as, immediate contact.
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            You are the most immediate to our throne. --Shak.
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   2. Not deferred by an interval of time; present; instant.
      "Assemble we immediate council." --Shak.
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            Death . . . not yet inflicted, as he feared,
            By some immediate stroke.             --Milton.
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   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.
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            The immediate knowledge of the past is therefore
            impossible.                           --Sir. W.
                                                  Hamilton.
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   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.

   Syn: Proximate; close; direct; next.
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