momentary

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Ephemeral or relatively short-lived.

   Yet oh! what an immense difference did I feel between this impression of a pleasure merely animal, and struck out of the collision of the sexes by a passive bodily effect, from that sweet fury, that rage of active delight which crowns the enjoyments of a mutual love-passion, where two hearts, tenderly and truly united, club to exalt the joy, and give it a spirit and soul that bids defiance to that end which mere momentary desires generally terminate in, when they die of a surfeit of satisfaction!

2. 2
   adj

   lasting for a markedly brief time

3. 3
   adj

   Lasting for only a moment.

4. 4
   adj

   Happening at every moment; perpetual.

Etymology

From Middle English momentare, from Late Latin mōmentārius (“of brief duration”), from mōmentum (“a short time, an instant”). By surface analysis, moment + -ary.