IMMINENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does imminent mean? 

• IMMINENT (adjective)
  The adjective IMMINENT has 1 sense:

1. close in time; about to occur

  Familiarity information: IMMINENT used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IMMINENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Close in time; about to occur

Synonyms:

at hand; close at hand; imminent; impendent; impending

Context example:

his impending retirement

Similar:

close (at or within a short distance in space or time or having elements near each other)

Derivation:

imminence; imminency (the state of being imminent and liable to happen soon)

 Context examples 

We were in imminent danger of being swamped by the whitecaps.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Even more imminent, the White Nile — one of the two main tributaries of the Nile — could lose its source waters in just a decade.

(Environmental change in Africa: Will it lead to a drying Lake Victoria?, National Science Foundation)

Here is the statement which was drawn up by my father when he knew that the danger from Hudson had become imminent.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We are still surrounded by mountains of ice, still in imminent danger of being crushed in their conflict.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The danger was imminent and plain to the least thoughtful.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mission operators were also faced with an imminent month-long period when the sun is close to the line-of-sight between Earth and Rosetta, meaning communications with the craft would have become increasingly more difficult.

(Final Descent Image from Rosetta Spacecraft, NASA)

Severely disabled; hospitalization is indicated, although death not imminent.

(Karnofsky Performance Status 30, NCI Thesaurus)

He was a man without a past, whose future was the imminent grave and whose present was a bitter fever of living.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And, above all, take care of yourself in the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Never was our expedition in more imminent danger of complete annihilation.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)