Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Peter Mark Roget

adj.†; evanescence, impermanence, fugacity [Chem], caducity†, mortality, span; nine days' wonder, bubble, Mayfly; spurt; flash in the pan; temporary arrangement, interregnum. velocity &c 274; suddenness &c 113; changeableness &c 149. transient, transient boarder, transient guest [U.S.]. V. be transient &c adj.; flit, pass away, fly, gallop, vanish, fade, evaporate; pass away like a cloud, pass away like a summer cloud, pass away like a shadow, pass away like a dream. Adj. transient, transitory, transitive; passing, evanescent, fleeting, cursory, short-lived, ephemeral; flying &c v.; fugacious, fugitive; shifting, slippery; spasmodic; instantaneous, momentaneous†. temporal, temporary; provisional, provisory; deciduous; perishable, mortal, precarious, unstable, insecure; impermanent. brief, quick, brisk, extemporaneous, summary; pressed for time &c (haste) 684; sudden, momentary &c (instantaneous) 113. Adv. temporarily &c adj.; pro tempore [Lat.]; for the moment, for a time; awhile, en passant [Fr.], in transitu [Lat.]; in a short time; soon &c (early) 132; briefly &c adj.; at short notice; on the point of, on the eve of; in articulo; between cup and lip. Phr. one's days are numbered; the time is up; here today and gone tomorrow; non semper erit aestas [Lat.]; eheu! fugaces labuntur anni [Lat.]; sic transit gloria mundi [Lat.]; a schoolboy's tale, the wonder of the hour! [Byron]; dum loquimur fugerit invidia aetas [Lat.]; fugit hora [Lat.]; all that is transitory is but an illusion [Goethe].