The Collaborative International Dictionary
Transient \Tran"sient\, a. [L. transiens, -entis, p. pr. of transire, transitum, to go or pass over. See Trance.]
Passing before the sight or perception, or, as it were, moving over or across a space or scene viewed, and then disappearing; hence, of short duration; not permanent; not lasting or durable; not stationary; passing; fleeting; brief; transitory; as, transient pleasure. ``Measured this transient world.''
--Milton.Hasty; momentary; imperfect; brief; as, a transient view of a landscape.
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Staying for a short time; not regular or permanent; as, a transient guest; transient boarders. [Colloq. U. S.]
Syn: Transient, Transitory, Fleeting.
Usage: Transient represents a thing as brief at the best; transitory, as liable at any moment to pass away. Fleeting goes further, and represents it as in the act of taking its flight. Life is transient; its joys are transitory; its hours are fleeting.
What is loose love? A transient gust.
--PopeIf [we love] transitory things, which soon decay, Age must be loveliest at the latest day.
--Donne.O fleeting joys Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes.
--Milton. [1913 Webster] -- Tran"sient*ly, adv. -- Tran"sient*ness, n.
Wiktionary
adv. In a transient manner; momentarily; briefly.
WordNet
adv. for a very short time; "these three pions may actually be joined together transiently as a compound particle during the interchange process"
Usage examples of "transiently".
There was also in Pomyalovsky a cement of practical sense that is unusual in a Russian intellectual and only transiently a feature of the first generation of plebeian intellectuals that came after the generation of the forties.
I am the unquenched spark ever flashing and astonishing the face of time, ever working my will and wreaking my passion on the cloddy aggregates of matter, called bodies, which I have transiently inhabited.