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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
punctual
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Dinner is served at seven: please try to be punctual.
▪ Michael's a very punctual, reliable worker.
▪ Our clients are usually punctual -- you would be too if you were paying $10 a minute.
▪ We've always been punctual in paying our rent.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Drew became less punctual, he muffed his lines, and was often replaced by an understudy.
▪ He ensures that deliveries are punctual and accounts paid on time.
▪ Republicans are more punctual, make lists, dress better.
▪ She was absolutely punctual herself, thrifty about her own time.
▪ The cities with their canals and punctual trams are among the most pleasant and orderly in the world.
▪ They're invariably punctual, because one of their men works there and has been put in funds in advance.
▪ They contain punctual alterations of specific texts, and they stage the confrontation between two or more voices.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Punctual

Punctual \Punc"tu*al\, a. [F. ponctuel (cf. Sp. puntual, It. puntuale), from L. punctum point. See Point.]

  1. Consisting in a point; limited to a point; unextended. [R.] ``This punctual spot.''
    --Milton.

    The theory of the punctual existence of the soul. -- Krauth.

  2. Observant of nice points; punctilious; precise.

    Punctual to tediousness in all that he relates. -- Bp. Burnet.

    So much on punctual niceties they stand.
    --C. Pitt.

  3. Appearing or done at, or adhering exactly to, a regular or an appointed time; precise; prompt; as, a punctual man; a punctual payment. ``The race of the undeviating and punctual sun.''
    --Cowper.

    These sharp strokes [of a pendulum], with their inexorably steady intersections, so agree with our successive thoughts that they seem like the punctual stops counting off our very souls into the past. -- J. Martineau.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
punctual

c.1400, from Medieval Latin punctualis, from Latin punctus "a pricking" (see point (n.)). Originally "having a sharp point; of the nature of a point;" meaning "prompt" first recorded 1670s, from notion of "insisting on fine points." Related: Punctually.

Wiktionary
punctual

a. 1 prompt or on time 2 # (''of an event'') Happening at the appointed time 3 # (''of a person'') Acting at the appointed time 4 (context mathematics English) Existing as a point or series of points 5 (context linguistics English) Expressing momentary action that has no duration alt. 1 prompt or on time 2 # (''of an event'') Happening at the appointed time 3 # (''of a person'') Acting at the appointed time 4 (context mathematics English) Existing as a point or series of points 5 (context linguistics English) Expressing momentary action that has no duration

WordNet
punctual

adj. acting or arriving or performed exactly at the time appointed; "she expected guests to be punctual at meals"; "he is not a particularly punctual person"; "punctual payment" [ant: unpunctual]

Usage examples of "punctual".

Peter Ascham, of the eminent legal firm of Ascham and Pettilow, would have his punctual hand on the door-bell of the flat.

He had told Voris he would leave Castle Dring at dawn, and Voris was always punctual.

On the day appointed I was punctual at the place of rendezvous, and I had not to wait for my mistress.

He thanked me, and I soothed his uneasiness about being punctual to his appointment by telling him that a coach was waiting, and that the fare had been paid.

Chancery Court VI just as Puffkins, punctual to the second, was taking his seat.

At length the great orb began to sink in majesty behind the tattered western forest, and, punctual to the minute, Simba, with a mounted escort of some twenty men and two led horses, appeared at our gate.

And punctual to the very half minute I wuz down on the piazza, with my mantilly hung over my arm and my umberel in my left hand.

I need not tell the reader who knows the state of excitement under which I was labouring, that I was punctual in presenting myself at the convent.

Valerie, more than twenty since his daughter Reine had joined her, and he still ever lived on in his methodical, punctual manner, amid the downfall of his existence.

Great numbers of the Alani, appeased by the punctual discharge of the engagements which Aurelian had contracted with them, relinquished their booty and captives, and quietly retreated to their own deserts, beyond the Phasis.

Stephen, giving the cry, and a tag and bobtail of all them after, cockerel, jackanapes, welsher, pilldoctor, punctual Bloom at heels with a universal grabbing at headgear, ashplants, bilbos, Panama hats and scabbards, Zermatt alpenstocks and what not.

Von Pilsen and his party should see him, and know that this last forgery no less than the others had succeeded in duping him into a punctual observance of the appointment, Mr.

I need not tell the reader who knows the state of excitement under which I was labouring, that I was punctual in presenting myself at the convent.

I was punctual to my appointment, and found the fair unfortunate at the door of the hotel.