fast
quickly or rapidly (often used as a combining form)
How often you will meet it
Rank 773 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 23,968 times across 155,370 chapters — 0.011% of every word in the library.
It belongs to the first 1,000 words, the band worth learning before any other.
What it means
adverb
- quickly or rapidly (often used as a combining form) how fast can he get here?ran as fast as he could
- firmly or closely also: tight held fast to the ropeher foot was stuck fast
adjective
- acting or moving or capable of acting or moving quickly fast filmon the fast track in school
- (used of timepieces) indicating a time ahead of or later than the correct time my watch is fast
- at a rapid tempo the band played a fast fox trot
- (of surfaces) conducive to rapid speeds a fast roadgrass courts are faster than clay
- resistant to destruction or fading fast colors
- unrestrained by convention or morality also: debauched, degenerate, degraded, dissipated, dissolute, libertine Congreve draws a debauched aristocratic societydeplorably dissipated and degraded
fast in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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Your silkworm used to fast every third day, and the next following spins the better.
The White Devil · John Webster · Chapter 1
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Your pet fast bumpy ones, wide of the wicket, Perhaps look showy, but they are not Cricket.
Punch — Volume 99, August 16, 1890 · Various · Chapter 1
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It was coming fast, and the boy sprang through the bushes and, followed by Mavis, flew down the road.
The Heart of the Hills · John, Jr. Fox · Chapter 1
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Riding fast, Sir Thomas Tresham crossed the Thames at Reading before any news of the battle of Barnet had arrived there.
A Knight of the White Cross · G. A. (George Alfred) Henty · Chapter 1
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East and west and south and north 10 The messengers ride fast, And tower and town and cottage Have heard the trumpet's blast.
Narrative and Lyric Poems (first series) · O. J. [Annotator] Stevenson · Chapter 1