What does "current" mean?
Current: Now passing, as time; as, the current month.
Additional senses
- 2.Passing from person to person, or from hand to hand; circulating through the community; generally received; common; as, a current coin; a current report; current history. That there was current money in Abraham's time is past doubt. Arbuthnot. Your fire-new stamp of honor is scarce current. Shak. His current value, which is less or more as men have occasion for him. Grew.
- 3.Commonly estimated or acknowledged.
- 4.Fitted for general acceptance or circulation; authentic; passable. O Buckingham, now do I play the touch To try if thou be current gold indeed. Shak. Account current. See under Account. -- Current money, lawful money. Abbott.
- 5.A flowing or passing; onward motion. Hence: A body of fluid moving continuously in a certain direction; a stream; esp., the swiftest part of it; as, a current of water or of air; that which resembles a stream in motion; as, a current of electricity. Two such silver currents, when they join, Do glorify the banks that bound them in. Shak. The surface of the ocean is furrowed by currents, whose direction . . . the navigator should know. Nichol.
- 6.General course; ordinary procedure; progressive and connected movement; as, the current of time, of events, of opinion, etc. Current meter, an instrument for measuring the velocity, force, etc., of currents. -- Current mill, a mill driven by a current wheel. -- Current wheel, a wheel dipping into the water and driven by the current of a stream or by the ebb and flow of the tide. See Stream.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00