PRESENTLY

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does presently mean? 

• PRESENTLY (adverb)
  The adverb PRESENTLY has 2 senses:

1. in the near future

2. at this time or period; now

  Familiarity information: PRESENTLY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRESENTLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In the near future

Synonyms:

before long; presently; shortly; soon

Context example:

we should have news before long

Sense 2

Meaning:

At this time or period; now

Synonyms:

currently; presently

Context example:

currently they live in Connecticut

Pertainym:

present (temporal sense; intermediate between past and future; now existing or happening or in consideration)

 Context examples 

“Quite as comfortable as we can expect a young mother to be, under these melancholy domestic circumstances. There cannot be any objection to your seeing her presently, ma'am. It may do her good.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"What made you stay away so long?" she asked presently, finding it so pleasant to ask confidential questions and get delightful answers that she could not keep silent.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Far be it from me, he presently continued, in a voice that marked his displeasure, to resent the behaviour of your daughter.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Presently her eye wandered to the other, and she was surprised to recognise in him a certain Mr. Hyde, who had once visited her master and for whom she had conceived a dislike.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The woman rose: she opened a door, through which I dimly saw a passage: soon I heard her stir a fire in an inner room; she presently came back.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He faced me presently with what looked like a very tattered sketch-book in his hand.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Well, well, said he presently with an exclamation of satisfaction, things are turning a little in our direction at last.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The man and his wife looked at each other for a while, and presently began to cry.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

This answer startled me, but I presently recovered myself.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I’ll make the whole matter clear to you presently.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)