transient

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Passing with time; transitory: "the transient beauty of youth” ( Lydia M. Child).
2. adj. Remaining in a place only a brief time: transient laborers.
3. adj. Physics Decaying with time, especially as a simple exponential function of time.
4. n. One that is transient, especially a hotel guest or boarder who stays for only a brief time.
5. n. Physics A transient phenomenon or property, especially a transient electric current.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Passing across, as from one thing or person to another; communicated.
2. Passing with time; of short duration; not permanent; not lasting or durable; temporary; as, a transient impression.
3. Hasty; momentary; passing: as, a transient glance of a landscape.
4. In music, intermediate—that is, serving as a connective, but unessential in itself: as, a transient chord, modulation, or note. Compare passing-note.
5. SynonymsTransient, Transitory, Fleeting. Strictly, transient marks the fact that a thing soon passes or will soon pass away: as, a transient impression; a transient shadow. Transitory indicates that lack of permanence is in the nature of the thing; as, transitory pleasure; this transitory life. Fleeting is by figure a stronger word than transient, though in the same line of meaning. See list under transitory.
6. n. One who or that which is temporary, passing, or not permanent.
7. n. Specifically A transient gruest.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Passing or disappearing with time; transitory.
2. adj. Remaining for only a brief time.
3. adj. physics Decaying with time, especially exponentially.
4. adj. mathematics having a positive probability of being left and never being visited again.
5. adj. Occasional; isolated; one-off; individual.
6. adj. Passing through; passing from one person to another.
7. adj. philosophy Operating beyond itself; having an external effect.
8. n. Something which is transient.
9. n. physics A transient phenomenon, especially an electric current; a very brief surge.
10. n. acoustics A relatively loud, non-repeating signal in an audio waveform which occurs very quickly, such as the attack of a snare drum.
11. n. A person who passes through a place for a short time; a traveller; a migrant worker
12. n. An unhoused person

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. 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.
2. adj. Hasty; momentary; imperfect; brief.
3. adj. Colloq. U. S. Staying for a short time; not regular or permanent.
4. n. That which remains but for a brief time.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. of a mental act; causing effects outside the mind
2. adj. lasting a very short time
3. n. (physics) a short-lived oscillation in a system caused by a sudden change of voltage or current or load
4. n. one who stays for only a short time