quick
/kwɪk/ adjective, adverb, noun, verb, proper noun
Forms quicker quickest quicks quicking quicked kwik
- adjective Moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast. “I ran to the station – but I wasn't quick enough.”
- adjective Occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly. “That was a quick meal.”
- adjective Lively, fast-thinking, witty, intelligent. “You have to be very quick to be able to compete in ad-lib theatrics.”
- adjective Mentally agile, alert, perceptive. “My father is old but he still has a quick wit.”
- adjective (of people or tempers) Easily aroused to anger; quick-tempered. “She has a very quick temper.”
- adjective (archaic) Alive, living.
- adjective (archaic, of a foetus) At the stage where it can be felt to move in the uterus.
- adjective (now rare, archaic) Pregnant, especially at the stage where the foetus's movements can be felt; figuratively, alive with some emotion or feeling.
- adverb Quickly, in a quick manner. “Get rich quick.”
- adverb Answer quickly.
- noun Raw or sensitive flesh, especially that underneath finger and toe nails.
- noun Plants used in making a quickset hedge
- noun The life; the mortal point; a vital part; a part susceptible to serious injury or keen feeling.
- noun (with "the", archaic) Synonym of living (“those who are alive”). “the quick and the dead”
- noun Quitchgrass.
- noun (cricket) A fast bowler.
- verb (transitive) To amalgamate surfaces prior to gilding or silvering by dipping them into a solution of mercury in nitric acid.
- verb (transitive, archaic, poetic) To quicken.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
fast ready brief bright hotheaded rattish short-tempered snippish snippy extant expecting running speedy rapid swift momentary short-lived droll keen intelligent flying agile nimble spry immediate prompt straightaway warm promptly quickly
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English quik, quic (“living, alive, active”), from Old English cwic (“alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwiku (“alive, lively quick”), from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz (“alive, lively, quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós (“alive”), from *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”), *gʷeyh₃w- (“to live”). For semantic development, compare lively.
Cognate with Dutch kwik, kwiek (“lively, quick”), German keck (“sassy, cheeky”), Danish kvik (“lively, quick-witted, quick”), kvæg (“cattle”), Faroese kvikur (“quick”), Icelandic kvikur (“lively, quick”), Norn kvikk, hwikk (“living, swarming, teeming”), Norwegian kvikk (“quick, lively, quick-witted”), Swedish kvick (“quick, witty”), and also (from Indo-European) with Greek βίος (víos, “life”), Latin vivus (“alive”), Lithuanian gývas (“alive”), Latvian dzīvs (“alive”), Russian живо́й (živój, “alive, lively, quick”), Polish żywy (“alive”), Welsh byw (“alive”), Irish beo (“alive”), biathaigh (“to feed”), Northern Kurdish jîn (“to live”), jiyan (“life”), giyan (“soul”), can (“soul”), Sanskrit जीव (jīva, “alive”), Albanian nxit (“to urge, stimulate”). Doublet of jiva.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Alive; living; animate; --opposed to dead or inanimate.
- adjective Characterized by life or liveliness; animated; sprightly; agile; brisk; ready. " A quick wit." Shak.
- adverb In a quick manner; quickly; promptly; rapidly; with haste; speedily; without delay; as, run quick; get back quick.
- noun That which is quick, or alive; a living animal or plant; especially, the hawthorn, or other plants used in making a living hedge.
Etymology [As. cwic, cwicu, cwucu, cucu, living; akin to OS. quik, D. kwik, OHG. quec, chec, G. keck bold, lively, Icel. kvikr living, Goth. qius, Lith. qyvas, Russ. zhivoi, L. vivus living, vivere to live, Gr. bi`os life, Skr. jiva living, jiv to live. Cf. Biography, Vivid, Quitch grass, Whitlow.]
Etymology [See Quicken.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “quick”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details