fast

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (4)  · 
“
The site chosen for the fast was the Santa Rita Hall, a tiny rectangular building tucked away in the heart of a Phoenix barrio.

View all »
Definitions (102)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (27)

  1. adjective Acting, moving, or capable of acting or moving quickly; swift.
  2. adjective Accomplished in relatively little time: a fast visit.
  3. adjective Acquired quickly with little effort and sometimes unscrupulously: made a fast buck scalping tickets.
24 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (55)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (15)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • In a way, the Wolf 359 situation was the polar opposite of what the Civil Worlds had hitherto had to deal with, which was habitats, networks, some­times whole systems going into exponential intelligence enhancement— what we called a fast burn. —  Dozois, Gardner ; Strahan, Jonathan - SSC - The New Space Opera (v1.0)
  • As in many world religions, the fast is a time for reflecting on one's spiritual progress and making an effort to detach from material desires.
  • "Home screen personalization and access to a whole host of applications gets the info you want -- fast, and at your fingertips." —  InformationWeek - All Stories And Blogs
  • Pray that the AD2009 Esther fast will be a spiritual success. —  inJesus :: Online Community :: Last posted message
  • The OS just feels fast-fast-fast, as others have said as well in their reviews. —  OSNews
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Words tagged fast

Stats

This word has been looked up 215 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

rapid ·  then ·  high-speed ·  regular ·  efficient ·  forward ·  speedy

Used in the same contextWord Family

fast:   fastest ·  faster
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (10)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English fæst, firm, fixed; see past- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English fasten, from Old English fæstan; see past- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (8)

  1. Also dial. fest; from Middle English fast, fest, fæst, from Anglo-Saxon fæst, fixed, firm, stiff, solid, constant, fortified, = Old Saxon fast = OFries. fest = Dutch vast = Middle Low German Low German fast, fest = Old High German fasti, festi, feste, Middle High German veste, vest, German fest = Icelandic fastr = Swedish Danish fast = Gothic (Moesogothic) *fasts (not found), fixed, firm, strong: see fast and fast. In comp. earth-fast, stead-fast, sooth-fast, etc., shame-fast (corruptly shame-faced), etc.
  2. from Middle English faste, feste, firmly, immovably, strongly, powerfully; in reference to sleeping, soundly; in reference to place, near, close, in adverb phrase faste by, faste besyde (these two uses being Scandinavian: cf. Icelandic sofa fast, be fast asleep; leita fast eptir (literally seek close after, ‘lait after’), press hard, legja fast at, close with one (in a sea-fight), etc.; cf. hard in a similar use, hard by, hard upon), from Anglo-Saxon fæste, firmly, immovably (= Old Saxon fasto = OFries. feste, festa, fest = Dutch vast = Old High German fasto, Middle High German vaste, German fast, fest, firmly, immovably, strongly, very, = Icelandic Danish Swedish fast, fast, hard, etc.: see fast, adv.), from Anglo-Saxon fæst, fixed, firm: see fast, a.
  3. from Middle English fasten, festen, make fast, fix, fasten, from Anglo-Saxon fæstan (comp. ge-, be-fæstan) (usually in the form fæstnian: see fasten), fasten (= Old Saxon festian, make fast, = Dutch vesten, surround with a wall, = Old High German fastan, festan, Middle High German vesten, make fast, = Icelandic festa = Swedish fästa = Danish fæste, make fast, fasten, fix), from fæst, fast, fixed: see fast, a. The Gothic (Moesogothic) fastan means only ‘keep, hold, observe,’ and is apparently identical with fastan, fast, abstain from food: see fast.
  4. from Middle English faste, swiftly, quickly, a particular use of the adverb faste, firmly, strongly, powerfully, due to Scandinavian influence: cf. Icelandic adverb fast (neuter of fastr, adjective) in fylgja fast, follow fast, eldask fast, age fast, drekka fast, drink hard, etc., = Old Danish fast, much, swiftly, at once, near to, almost, yet, even though, = Swedish fast, nearly, almost, though, although: same as fast, adv. See fast, adv. The English adjective fast, quick, is from the adverb With fast, fixed and fast, quick, cf. German fix, fast, fixed, also fast, quick, nimble, ready, = Danish fix, fixed, colloq. smart, quick, from Latin fixus, fixed.
  5. Not found as adjective in Middle English; from fast, adv. The W. ffest, fast, quick, speedy, ffestin, of active nature, ffestinio, ffestu, hasten, make haste, are of Latin origin; cf. Latin festinus, fast, quick, speedy, festinare, hasten, etc.: see festinate.
  6. Middle English fasten; from fast, adv.
  7. from Middle English fasten, festen, from Anglo-Saxon fæstan = OFries. festia = Dutch vasten = Old High German fastēn, Middle High German fasten, German fasten = Icelandic fasta = Swedish fasta = Danish faste = Gothic (Moesogothic) fastan, fast, abstain from food, Latin jejunare. It is not clear that fast in this sense is identical with fast, v., make fast, etc. The forms are alike only in Gothic (Moesogothic); cf. Gothic (Moesogothic) fastan, keep, observe, fastubni, a keeping, observance, with fastan, fast, fastubni, a fast. So Middle Latin observare, literally keep, observe, is found equivalent to abstinere, abstain, fast. It is not unlikely that Gothic (Moesogothic) fastan, keep, observe, is a different word from fast, make fast; there is no Gothic (Moesogothic) adjective *fasts = English fast, a., to support it.
  8. from Middle English fast, faste, shorter form (as in Scandinavian, etc.) of fasten, festen, from Anglo-Saxon fæsten = Old Saxon fastunnia (once fasta, in dative fastun) = Dutch vaste, fast, Lent, = OFries. festa = Old High German fasta, fasto, Middle High German vaste, vasten, German fasten = Icelandic fasta = Swedish fasta = Danish faste = Gothic (Moesogothic) fastubni, a fast, from fastan, fast: see fast, v. It will be seen that fast, like Lent, has lost the final syllable -en.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/fæst/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word several times a day.

Recently looked up

roc · Dolph · redness · ironwork · fraternizing

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich · Glockenspiel