Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To move or act swiftly. synonym: speed.
  • intransitive verb To cause to move or act swiftly.
  • intransitive verb To cause to happen sooner than otherwise would be the case.
  • intransitive verb To speed up; accelerate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To move or act with celerity; be rapid, speedy, or quick; make haste: applied primarily to voluntary action.
  • Synonyms Hasten, Hurry. To hasten is to work, move, etc., quickly, but properly not too quickly; to hurry is to go too fast for dignity, comfort, or thoroughness: as, to hasten to tell a piece of good news; to hasten the erection of a building; to hurry through a lesson; to look hurried. While hasten has come to be thus used only in a good sense, haste, n., hasty, and hastiness retain a bad meaning as well as a good: as, the book was evidently written in haste; he had a hasty temper; he had occasion to regret his hastiness. Indeed, hasty and hastiness usually convey censure.
  • To cause to move or act with celerity; cause to make haste; drive or urge forward; expedite.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To press; to drive or urge forward; to push on; to precipitate; to accelerate the movement of; to expedite; to hurry.
  • intransitive verb To move with celerity; to be rapid in motion; to act speedily or quickly; to go quickly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To move in a quick fashion.
  • verb To make someone speed up or make something happen quicker.
  • verb To cause some scheduled event to happen earlier.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb speed up the progress of; facilitate
  • verb act or move at high speed
  • verb move fast
  • verb cause to occur rapidly

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

haste +‎ -en

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Examples

  • The answers to these letters left no hope that the question would be submitted to the Chambers in time to have the result known before the adjournment of Congress, and by the refusal to hasten the convocation of the Chambers before the last of December showed unequivocally that, so far from taking all measures permitted by the constitution to _hasten_ the period of presenting the law, it was to be left to the most remote period of the ordinary course of legislation.

    A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 3, part 1: Andrew Jackson (Second Term) 1878

  • "There was no regular order of march, but each rushed onward at his utmost speed, praying aloud to God for help to increase it, and calling frantically to his fellows to 'hasten, _hasten_ to the rescue of all they held most dear.'

    Elsie at Nantucket Martha Finley 1868

  • I pretended to go into the city: I did so; and returned about the hour I supposed my brother in the wood: I fastened my horse at the entrance of it, changed my dress, put a mask on my face, and crept on towards the lower part; I distinguished him through trees - let me hasten from the remembrance!

    The Castle of Wolfenbach Eliza 1793

  • But Stephen's object in mentioning David is to hasten from the tabernacle which he set up, to the temple which his son built, in Jerusalem; and this only to show, from their own Scripture (Isa

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • His description of the roads over the Alps is clear, lively, and accurate.] 56 Zosimus as well as Eusebius hasten from the passage of the Alps to the decisive action near

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • Apologists for ignoring the other side of the DV coin hasten to point out that while, yes, women commit domestic violence as readily as men, they don't do as much damage, and that's what's important.

    MND: Your Daily Dose of Counter-Theory 2009

  • Apologists for ignoring the other side of the DV coin hasten to point out that while, yes, women commit domestic violence as readily as men, they don't do as much damage, and that's what's important.

    MND: Your Daily Dose of Counter-Theory 2009

  • Apologists for ignoring the other side of the DV coin hasten to point out that while, yes, women commit domestic violence as readily as men, they don't do as much damage, and that's what's important.

    MND: Your Daily Dose of Counter-Theory 2009

  • It also asked Radebe to "hasten" the availability of the R3 million allocated by cabinet for the upgrading of public transport in preparation for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2005

  • It will be further observed that the criminal undertook to "hasten" to the port of departure.

    The Customs of Old England

Comments

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  • Flora leaps out. "Hurry, Leonard! This way!" They hasten down a secret path.

    - William Steig, The Zabajaba Jungle

    October 5, 2008