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PUNCTUAL
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Acting or arriving or performed exactly at the time appointed
Example:
she is always on time for class
Synonyms:
on time; punctual
Classified under:
Similar:
prompt (according to schedule or without delay; on time)
timely (before a time limit expires)
Antonym:
unpunctual (not punctual; after the appointed time)
Derivation:
punctuality (the quality or habit of adhering to an appointed time)
Context examples:
Mr. Crawford had, as he foretold, been very punctual, and short and pleasant had been the meal.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Her own fortune she had taken care to secure; and when her mother died—and it was wholly improbable, she tranquilly remarked, that she should either recover or linger long—she would execute a long-cherished project: seek a retirement where punctual habits would be permanently secured from disturbance, and place safe barriers between herself and a frivolous world.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
What I wish is, to be perfectly business-like, and perfectly punctual.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Bingley was punctual to his appointment; and he and Mr. Bennet spent the morning together, as had been agreed on.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The coachman drove round to a minute; another minute brought down the gentleman; and as the lady had, with a most scrupulous fear of being late, been many minutes seated in the drawing-room, Sir Thomas saw them off in as good time as his own correctly punctual habits required.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I wondered what it meant: I wondered, too, at the punctual satisfaction he never failed to exhibit on an occasion that seemed to me of small moment, namely, my weekly visit to Morton school; and still more was I puzzled when, if the day was unfavourable, if there was snow, or rain, or high wind, and his sisters urged me not to go, he would invariably make light of their solicitude, and encourage me to accomplish the task without regard to the elements.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I laboured hard at my book, without allowing it to interfere with the punctual discharge of my newspaper duties; and it came out and was very successful.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It was a wet and windy afternoon: Georgiana had fallen asleep on the sofa over the perusal of a novel; Eliza was gone to attend a saint's-day service at the new church—for in matters of religion she was a rigid formalist: no weather ever prevented the punctual discharge of what she considered her devotional duties; fair or foul, she went to church thrice every Sunday, and as often on week-days as there were prayers.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
These she explained to the unbounded satisfaction of the family,—children and all being then present,—and so much to the awakening of Mr. Micawber's punctual habits in the opening stage of all bill transactions, that he could not be dissuaded from immediately rushing out, in the highest spirits, to buy the stamps for his notes of hand.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
