Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Recent \Re"cent\, a. [L. recens, -entis: cf. F. r['e]cent.]
   1. Of late origin, existence, or occurrence; lately come; not
      of remote date, antiquated style, or the like; not already
      known, familiar, worn out, trite, etc.; fresh; novel; new;
      modern; as, recent news.

            The ancients were of opinion, that a considerable
            portion of that country [Egypt] was recent, and
            formed out of the mud discharged into the
            neighboring sea by the Nile.          --Woodward.

   2. (Geol.) Of or pertaining to the present or existing epoch;
      as, recent shells.

Source : WordNet®

recent
     adj 1: being new in a time not long past; "recent graduates"; "a
            recent addition to the house"; "recent buds on the
            apple trees"
     2: of the immediate past or just previous to the present time;
        "a late development"; "their late quarrel"; "his recent
        trip to Africa"; "in recent months"; "a recent issue of
        the journal" [syn: {late(a)}]
     3: near to or not long before the present; "recent times"; "of
        recent origin"