Definition of "at hand"

The King your brother is now hard at hand,Meete with the foole, and rid your royall ſhouldersOf ſuch a burden, as outweighs the ſandsAnd all the craggie rockes of Caſpea.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act II, scene iii

At last, one morning, the propeller was quiet, and the Narwhal was pervaded with an atmosphere of excitement. He felt it, as did the other dogs, and knew that a change was at hand.

1903 July, Jack London, “Into the Primitive”, in The Call of the Wild, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., page 39

The problem at hand is not the inability of the Arabs and the Jews to live together peacefully.

2001, Ghaith Mahmood, “Problem is about oppression, not coexistence”, in The Daily Bruin‎, archived from the original on 29 September 2007