Definitions

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

  • adverb With great speed; rapidly.
  • noun Great speed; rapidity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • With the haste of a post; with speed or urgent expedition: as, he traveled post-haste.
  • noun Haste or speed like that of a post or courier in traveling.
  • Expeditious; speedy; immediate.
  • [The edition of 1623 reads “post, post-haste.”]

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

  • noun Haste or speed in traveling, like that of a post or courier.
  • adverb With speed or expedition

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

  • adverb quickly, as fast as someone travelling post; with great speed
  • noun Alternative spelling of post-haste.

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

  • adverb as fast as possible; with all possible haste

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the phrase haste, post, haste, a direction on letters.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the former instruction on letters ‘haste, post, haste’, later reinterpreted as a compound of post + haste.

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Examples

  • A dozen miles to the north, the defeated Istarian army huddled against the outer walls of the city, awaiting reinforcements recalled posthaste from their stations along the Thoradin border.

    The Dark Queen Williams, Michael, 1952 Dec. 17- 1994

  • Woody Harrelson, who asked for treatment "posthaste," she said.

    NYT > Home Page By GREG BISHOP 2010

  • Woody Harrelson, who asked for treatment "posthaste," she said.

    NYT > Home Page By GREG BISHOP 2010

  • When the legions had marched into camp outside Verona, Catulus Caesar knew the first thing he had to do was send word posthaste to Rome of the disaster up the Athesis; if he didn’t, he suspected Sulla would via Gaius Marius, so it was important that his be the first version Rome absorbed.

    The First Man in Rome McCullough, Colleen, 1937- 1990

  • When the default position in the USA is that restrictions on rights are only justified if they can show a reasonable relation to a positive effect on crime or safety, no documentable negative effect means the restrictions need to go away posthaste.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » A New Book Coming Soon from Michael Bellesiles 2010

  • To this end, Dean Obeidallah asks a very pointed question in his terrific Huffington Post piece from Wednesday that I have no doubt Palin will rush to refudiate posthaste:

    Zaki Hasan: Sarah Palin Jumps the Shark Zaki Hasan 2011

  • I highly recommend that anyone who missed this hardcover release from Tor rectify that oversight posthaste.

    MIND MELD: The Best Genre-Related Books/Films/Shows Consumed in 2009 (Part 2) 2009

  • We need to find out who these people are, and find something for them to do, posthaste.

    Is Robert Gibbs allowed to give test[i]monials like this? | RedState 2010

  • Since budgetary constraints make these unlikely, I instead urge noted film-maker, supreme tyrant and lifelong entitled brat Kim Jong-il to take up his film crew, coerce the population of North Korea into extra-duty, and film his glorious autobiography posthaste.

    The Devil's Double and more movies on the megalomaniacal 2011

  • When the default position in the USA is that restrictions on rights are only justified if they can show a reasonable relation to a positive effect on crime or safety, no documentable negative effect means the restrictions need to go away posthaste.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » A New Book Coming Soon from Michael Bellesiles 2010

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