one moment... the next
1
7.4
- idiom
:
un momento... al siguiente
- But these things don't just happen from one moment to the next; it all takes time. My grandfather always used to say that anyone going to sea must make his preparations on land first, and he wasn't even a sailor.
Examples
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He felt excited one moment, anxious the next, as he waited for the news.
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You and I thought that from one moment to the next, the world had righted itself and us together with it.
Fiction book (1990) -
What was above water one moment was below it the next, and even the extent to which the water reached was always different.
Blog text (17) -
Her long, mobile face was beautiful one moment, sinister the next.
Fiction book (1991) -
And then, between one moment and the next, Lyndsay stepped forward.
Fiction book (1990) -
One moment she was in the sun, the next she was tumbling in the wall of water.
Fiction book (1990) -
To your dog, there is only moving from one moment to the next, desirous until death, with negative experiences unavoidable and blindly accepted.
Blog text (17) -
Abraham, in particular, moves like liquid satin; taut in one moment and lax in the next.
Blog text (17) -
Then he stepped out onto the balcony, and like doves, his thoughts flew to his Edith, hereafter flapping their way to the other one, Wanda, and, after this, to his old apartment; and in his interior, all was quiet one moment, clamorous the next.
Fiction book (1999) -
The weather can be beautiful one moment, and then pouring rain the next.
Synonyms
Something happens suddenly before you notice
Antonyms
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'one moment' = at a particular instant and 'the next' = the following instant, so the phrase signals two contrasting states occurring in rapid succession. This simple temporal-contrast construction is common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
One moment... the next gives a picture of a quick cut in a film: one moment shows one scene, and the next suddenly shows something very different. So we use it to say there was a 'sudden change' in actions, feelings, or events.