Current /(k?r"rent)/

Cur·rent

Current

a.
  1. Running or moving rapidly. [Archaic]
    Like the current fire, that renneth Upon a cord.
    — Gower.
    To chase a creature that was current then In these wild woods, the hart with golden horns.
  2. Now passing, as time; as, the current month.
  3. 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.
    Your fire-new stamp of honor is scarce current.
    His current value, which is less or more as men have occasion for him.
    — Grew.
  4. Commonly estimated or acknowledged.
  5. Fitted for general acceptance or circulation; authentic; passable.
    O Buckingham, now do I play the touch To try if thou be current gold indeed.

Phrases & Compounds
Account current
See under Account.
Current money
lawful money.

Current

n.
  1. 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.
    The surface of the ocean is furrowed by currents, whose direction . . . the navigator should know.
    — Nichol.
  2. General course; ordinary procedure; progressive and connected movement; as, the current of time, of events, of opinion, etc.

Phrases & Compounds
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.