next

Etymology

From Middle English nexte, nexste, nixte, from Old English nīehsta, nīehste, etc., inflected forms of nīehst (“nearest, next”), superlative form of nēah (“nigh, near”), corresponding to Proto-Germanic *nēhwist (“nearest, closest”); equivalent to nigh + -est. Cognate with Saterland Frisian naist (“next”), Dutch naast (“next to”), German nächst (“next”), Danish næste (“next”), Swedish näst (“next”), Icelandic næst (“next”), Persian نزد (nazd, “near, with”).

adj

1. Nearest in place or position, having nothing similar intervening; adjoining.
   The man in the next bunk kept me awake all night with his snoring.
   She lives a mile or two away, in the next village.
   Philander went into the next room, which was just a lean-to hitched on to the end of the shanty, and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   1. (obsolete) Most direct, or shortest or nearest in distance or time.
      The road to resolution, lies by doubt: "The next way home's the farthest way about." 1777, Francis Quarles, Emblems Divine and Moral: Together with Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man, page 152, epigram 2
2. Nearest in order, succession, or rank; immediately following (or sometimes preceding) in order.
   Please turn to the next page.
   On Wednesday next, I'm going to Spain.
   the next chapter; the next week; the Sunday next before Easter
   The man was driven by his love for money and his desire to become the next Bill Gates.
   "[…]You patriotic?" / "I guess so, as much as the next guy," I said, wondering how the hell I could shake him. 1945, Yank: the army weekly, volume 4, page 96
3. (chiefly law) Nearest in relationship. (See also next of kin.)
   next friend
   And if a man purchase land in fee simple and die without issue, he which is his next cousin collaterall of the whole blood, how farre so ever he be from him in degree, (de quel pluis long degree qu'il soit), may inherite and have the land ... 1628, Coke, On Littleton (10. a. 10. b. §2), quoted in 1890, John Bethell Uhle, Current Comment and Legal Miscellany, page 250
   Thomas Humphrey Doleman died the 30th of August 1712, an infant, intestate and without issue; Lewis the next nephew died the 17th of April 1716, an infant about sixteen years old, having left his mother Mary Webb, ... 1793, William Peere Williams, Samuel Compton Cox, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery, and of Some Special Cases Adjudged in the Court of King's Bench [1695-1735]: De Term. S. Trin. 1731, page 602
   If it be a property, it is a new species, unknown to the civil law, the common law, and the statute law; there is no medium, it must be, if it goes to her next kin, because it is absolute property in her. There can be no distribution of personal property ... 1874, Thomas Sergeant, William Rawle, Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, page 23

det

1. Denotes the one immediately following the current or most recent one.
   Next week would be a good time to meet.
   I'll know better next time.
2. (of days of the week or months of the year) Closest in the future, or closest but one if the closest is very soon; of days, sometimes thought to specifically refer to the instance closest to seven days (one week) in the future.
   The party is next Tuesday; that is, not tomorrow, but eight days from now.
   When you say next Thursday, do you mean Thursday this week or Thursday next week?

adv

1. In a time, place, rank or sequence closest or following.
   They live in the next closest house.
   It's the next best thing to ice cream.
   1. (conjunctive) So as to follow in time or sequence something previously mentioned.
      First we removed all the handles; next, we stripped off the old paint.
2. On the first subsequent occasion.
   Financial panic, earthquakes, oil spills, riots. What comes next?
   When we next meet, you'll be married.

prep

1. (obsolete or poetic) On the side of; nearest or adjacent to; next to.
   D is so dainty a letter, that she admits no other consonant next her but R:[…] 1660, James Howell, Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish Dictionary:[…]By the Labours, and Lucubrations of James Howell, page 117
   1900, The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices, translated by Walter Leaf (London, Macmillan), notes on line 558 of book 2:
   The fact that the line cannot be original is patent from the fact that Aias in the rest of the Iliad is not encamped next the Athenians […] .
   Photographs indicate that the southern terminals of the ditch system next the west gate may be in echelon, whilst those marginal to the east gate may be slightly inturned. 1986, University of Wales Board of Celtic Studies, Bwletin Y Bwrdd Gwybodau Celtaidd - Volume 33, page 413

noun

1. The one that follows after this one.
   Next, please, don't hold up the queue!
   One moment she was there, the next she wasn't.
   The week after next
   There is no time for lunch, hauling myself from one place to the next. 2007, Steve Cohen, Next Stop Hollywood (St. Martin's Griffin)