fast

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Acting, moving, or capable of acting or moving quickly; swift.
2. adj. Accomplished in relatively little time: a fast visit.
3. adj. Acquired quickly with little effort and sometimes unscrupulously: made a fast buck scalping tickets.
4. adj. Quick to understand or learn; mentally agile: a class for the faster students.
5. adj. Indicating a time somewhat ahead of the actual time: The clock is fast.
6. adj. Allowing rapid movement or action: a fast running track.
7. adj. Designed for or compatible with a short exposure time: fast film.
8. adj. Disposed to dissipation; wild: ran with a fast crowd.
9. adj. Flouting conventional moral standards; sexually promiscuous.
10. adj. Resistant, as to destruction or fading: fast colors.
11. adj. Firmly fixed or fastened: a fast grip.
12. adj. Fixed firmly in place; secure: shutters that are fast against the rain.
13. adj. Firm in loyalty: fast friends.
14. adj. Lasting; permanent: fast rules and regulations.
15. adj. Deep; sound: in a fast sleep.
16. adv. In a secure manner; tightly: hold fast.
17. adv. To a sound degree; deeply: fast asleep.
18. adv. In a rapid manner; quickly.
19. adv. In quick succession: New ideas followed fast.
20. adv. Ahead of the correct or expected time: a watch that runs fast.
21. adv. In a dissipated, immoderate way: living fast.
22. adv. Archaic Close by; near.
23. v. To abstain from food.
24. v. To eat very little or abstain from certain foods, especially as a religious discipline.
25. n. The act or practice of abstaining from or eating very little food.
26. n. A period of such abstention or self-denial.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Firmly fixed in place; immovable.
2. Strong against attack; fortified.
3. Fixed in such a way as to prevent detachment, separation, removal, or escape; tight; secure; close; not loose nor easily detachable: as, take a fast hold; make fast the door; make fast a rope. Used elliptically in whaling, in exclamation, to indicate that the harpoon has pierced the whale, and that the boat is thus fast to it.
4. Firm in adherence; steadfast; faithful.
5. Tenacious; not fugitive; durable; lasting; permanent in tint: as, fast colors; fast to milling or to washing (said of colors, or of materials which will not change color under those operations).
6. Close, as sleep; deep; sound.
7. In use; not to be had.
8. The game of prison-bars or prisoner's-base.
9. Nautical, to belay: as, to make fast a rope.
10. n. That which fastens or holds. Specifically (nautical), a rope or chain by which a vessel is moored to a wharf, pier, etc.: named bow-, head-, quarter-, stern-, or breast-fast, according to the part of the vessel to which it is attached. By the breast-fast the vessel is secured broadside to the wharf or pier.
11. n. Immovable shore-ice.
12. n. An underlayer; an understratum.
13. So as to be fixed or firm; so as to be firmly fixed in its place or in a desired position; firmly; immovably: as, the door sticks fast.
14. In archery, used elliptically for stand fast, or some similar injunction, in cautioning a person against passing between the shooter and the target, and directing him to stand fast, or remain where he is.
15. Strongly; vehemently; greatly; hard.
16. Tenaciously; durably; permanently.
17. Eagerly.
18. Soundly; closely; deeply.
19. Close; near: as, fast by; fast beside. See below.
20. To make fast; fix; fasten.
21. Specifically To join in marriage; marry.
22. Swiftly; rapidly; quickly; with quick motion or in rapid succession: as, to run fast; to move fast through the water, as a ship; the work goes on fast; it rains fast; the blows fell thick and fast.
23. Swift; quick in motion; rapid; that moves, advances, or acts with celerity or speed: as, a fast horse; a fast cruiser; a fast printing-press.
24. Done or accomplished with celerity; speedily performed; occupying comparatively little time: as, a fast passage or journey; a fast race; fast work.
25. Being in advance of a standard; too far ahead: used of timepieces and reckonings of time: as, the clock or watch is fast, or ten minutes fast; your time is fast.
26. Furnishing or concerned with rapid transportation: as, a fast train; a fast-freight line; a fast route; a fast station.
27. Eager in the pursuit of pleasure or frivolity; devoted to pleasure and gayety; dissipated: as, a fast liver; a fast man; a fast life. When applied to a woman, it commonly indicates that she does not abide by strict rules of propriety, imitates the manners or habits of a man, etc.
28. To hasten.
29. To abstain from food beyond the usual time; omit to take nourishment: go hungry.
30. To abstain from food, or from particular kinds of food, voluntarily, for the mortification of the body, as a religious duty. See fast, n., and fast-day.
31. n. A state of fasting; abstinence from food; omission to take nourishment.
32. n. Voluntary abstinence from food, as a religious penance or discipline, as a means of propitiation, or as an expression of grief under affliction present or prospective. Roman Catholic theologians distinguish between natural and ecclesiastical fasts. In the former, which are required of those who are about to communicate, there is a total abstinence from all food and drink; the latter imposes certain limits and restrictions as regards both the kind and the quantity of the food.
33. n. A time of fasting; the prescribed period or duration of abstinence. The only fast ordained by the Mosaic law was that of the day of atonement; but other fasts were subsequently instituted on account of great national calamities, and special fasts also were appointed on account of special impending peril. In the Roman Catholic Church all baptized persons over twenty-one years of age are required to observe appointed days of fasting, on which, subject to certain exceptions and exemptions, as the requirements of health, they are required not to eat more than one full meal. These days include the forty days of Lent, the ember-days, the Fridays of the four weeks of Advent, and the vigils of Pentecost or Whit-Sunday, of the feasts of St. Peter and St. Paul, of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, of All Saints, and of Christmas day. All Fridays not fast-days are days of abstinence.. (See fast-day, 1.) In the Greek Church, in addition to the forty days of Lent, there are three principal fasts, each lasting a week: that of the Holy Spirit, immediately after Pentecost; that of the Virgin, in August; and that of the Nativity. In the Episcopal Church, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are fasts; Lent, the ember-days, the three rogation-days, and all Fridays are only days of abstinence.
34. Favorable to high speed: said of the condition of a race-track or road, and also, in cricket, of the wicket or playing-ground when it is hard and dry, so that the ball travels fast.
35. n. In architecture, a fastening, usually a simple button or bolt to keep a door or window shut: often used in combination, as door-fast, shutter-fast, etc.
36. n. The fast of the fifth month, on the ninth day of Ab, the fifth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year; on that day, the Talmud relates, it was decreed that the children of Israel should not enter the Promised Land: the destruction of the first and second temples occurred on the same day.
37. n. The fast of the tenth month, on the tenth day of Tebeth, the reason for this fast being the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.
38. n. The fast of Esther, on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, which is the eve of Purim (which see). Besides the above there are numerous other fasts, general, local, and private. For instance, in some localities the Jews fast on the twentieth day of Sivan (about the middle of June), on account of the calamities inflicted upon them in 1648 by the Cossacks under Chmielnicki. The Jews of Frankfort-on-the-Main fast on the nineteenth day of Adar, on account of the atrocities committed upon them at the time of their expulsion from that place in 1614. The orthodox Jews observe no less than twenty-five regular fast-days, besides a score or so of other self-imposed and private fasts, including Jahrzeit, a fast on the anniversary of the death of parents, and the fast of bad dreams, which takes place in order that God may be invoked to ward off the threatening evil. The very pious Jews fast every Friday, so that they may better enjoy the Sabbath feast in the evening, which is considered a meritorious meal.

Wiktionary

1. v. intransitive to abstain from or eat very little food; to abstain from food for religious or medical reasons
2. n. The act or practice of abstaining from food or of eating very little food
3. n. The period of time during which one abstains from or eats very little food
4. adj. computing Able to transfer data in a short period of time
5. adv. ahead of the correct time or schedule
6. n. UK, rail transport A train that calls at only some stations it passes between its origin and destination, typically just the principal stations
7. interj. archery Short for "stand fast", a warning not to pass between the arrow and the target

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To abstain from food; to omit to take nourishment in whole or in part; to go hungry.
2. v. To practice abstinence as a religious exercise or duty; to abstain from food voluntarily for a time, for the mortification of the body or appetites, or as a token of grief, or humiliation and penitence.
3. n. Abstinence from food; omission to take nourishment.
4. n. Voluntary abstinence from food, for a space of time, as a spiritual discipline, or as a token of religious humiliation.
5. n. A time of fasting, whether a day, week, or longer time; a period of abstinence from food or certain kinds of food.
6. adj. Firmly fixed; closely adhering; made firm; not loose, unstable, or easily moved; immovable.
7. adj. Firm against attack; fortified by nature or art; impregnable; strong.
8. adj. Firm in adherence; steadfast; not easily separated or alienated; faithful.
9. adj. Permanent; not liable to fade by exposure to air or by washing; durable; lasting.
10. adj. obsolete Tenacious; retentive.
11. adj. Not easily disturbed or broken; deep; sound.
12. adj. Moving rapidly; quick in mition; rapid; swift.
13. adj. Given to pleasure seeking; disregardful of restraint; reckless; wild; dissipated; dissolute.
14. adj. In such a condition, as to resilience, etc., as to make possible unusual rapidity of play or action
15. adv. In a fast, fixed, or firmly established manner; fixedly; firmly; immovably.
16. adv. In a fast or rapid manner; quickly; swiftly; extravagantly; wildly.
17. n. That which fastens or holds; especially, (Naut.) a mooring rope, hawser, or chain; -- called, according to its position, a bow, head, quarter, breast, or stern fast; also, a post on a pier around which hawsers are passed in mooring.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. acting or moving or capable of acting or moving quickly
2. adj. unrestrained by convention or morality
3. adv. quickly or rapidly (often used as a combining form)
4. v. abstain from eating
5. adj. (used of timepieces) indicating a time ahead of or later than the correct time
6. adj. resistant to destruction or fading
7. adj. hurried and brief
8. n. abstaining from food
9. v. abstain from certain foods, as for religious or medical reasons
10. adj. securely fixed in place
11. adj. (of surfaces) conducive to rapid speeds
12. adj. (of a photographic lens or emulsion) causing a shortening of exposure time
13. adv. firmly or closely
14. adj. at a rapid tempo
15. adj. unwavering in devotion to friend or vow or cause