Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Moving, acting, or occurring with great speed. See Synonyms at fast1.
- n. An extremely fast-moving part of a river, caused by a steep descent in the riverbed. Often used in the plural.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Moving or doing swiftly or with celerity; acting or performing with speed; quick in motion or execution: as, a rapid horse; a rapid worker or speaker.
- Swiftly advancing; going on or forward at a fast rate; making quick progress: as, rapid growth; rapid improvement; a rapid conflagration.
- Marked by swiftness of motion or action; proceeding or performed with velocity; executed speedily.
- Gay.
- =Syn. 1–3. Fast, fleet, expeditious, hasty, hurried.
- n. A swift current in a river, where the channel is descending; a part of a river where the current runs with more than its ordinary celerity; a sudden descent of the surface of a stream, more or less broken by obstructions, but without actual cataract or cascade: usually in the plural.
- In photography, said of plates, lenses, and subjects which require short exposure or print rapidly.
Wiktionary
- adj. Describes a process or concept which occurs quickly.
- n. a rough section of a river or stream which is difficult to navigate due to the swift and turbulent motion of the water.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Very swift or quick; moving with celerity; fast.
- adj. Advancing with haste or speed; speedy in progression; in quick sequence
- adj. Quick in execution.
- n. The part of a river where the current moves with great swiftness, but without actual waterfall or cascade; sometimes called
whitewater ; -- usually used in the plural.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. done or occurring in a brief period of time
- adj. characterized by speed; moving with or capable of moving with high speed
- n. a part of a river where the current is very fast
Etymologies
- Latin rapidus, from rapere, to seize; see rep- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Canyon, because the declivity within it is so great and the water descends with such tremendous velocity and continuity that he thought the term rapid failed to interpret the conditions.”
“When a person is in the REM phase, there is a noticeable twitching movement of the eyes under closed lids (hence the term rapid eye movement), and the voluntary muscles of the body are usually paralysed.”
“He also says China can no longer sacrifice the environment for what he describes as rapid and reckless development.”
Voice of America: China Lowers Growth Forecast to Curb Inflation, Pollution
“Opponents of Dodd-Frank decry what they call a rapid and haphazard approach, saying market participants "don't know what the rules are or whether these rules cover them," said Jess Sharp , a top official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.”
The Wall Street Journal: Gensler's Struggles Mark Regulatory Challenges
“The Red Cross folks say that they hope to get there tonight and that the first thing they're going to do is try to build up what they call a rapid deployment hospital.”
“QUESTION: There are some concerns in this country about the European plan for what they call a rapid-reaction force, their own military capability.”
“Problems in the police were being aggravated by what he described as a rapid globalisation of crime and criminals becoming more sophisticated.”
“Bank experts insist that unless there is what they call rapid market-assisted land reform, any future economic development will be precarious.”
“But the difficulty of going at what I call a rapid pace, is prodigious; it is almost an impossibility.”
“U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said on Sunday he is encouraged by what he described as the rapid and dramatic series of events toward a new Egypt without Mubarak.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rapid’.
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Topical
The buzzwords of our time
actionable, administrivia, advermation, agreeance, backbone provider, back-sourcing, baked in, bandwidth, barn raising, Barneyware, belly-buttons, Below Zeros and 734 more...
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movement (fast)
words describing fast action or movement
( randomness, descriptive )hurry, run, scamper, skip, stride, stampede, trample, scramble, dart, spring, spin, sprint and 140 more...
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The Buzz
The bang, the cannonade,
the bale, the hum.lab situation, media, startup, scientific, gameplay, social, intuitive, creative, collaborative, funding, non-governmental ..., consultant and 123 more...
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