haste

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Swiftness

Nouns — haste, urgency; dispatch; acceleration, spurt, forced march, rush, dash; velocity; precipitancy, precipitation, precipitousness; impatience, impetuosity; expedition, earliness; hurry, drive, scramble, bustle.

Verbs

1. haste, hasten; make haste, hurry [up], rush, dart, dash, whip on, push on, press; sentry, scuttle along, step lively, dash off, bustle, hustle, barrel, flash, scramble, plunge, bestir oneself (see activity); lose no time, make short work of; work against time. Informal, make tracks, make good time, step on it. Slang, shake a leg, get cracking, make it snappy, hotfoot it, get a move on, get the lead out [of your ass].

2. (get faster gradually) speed [up], expedite; precipitate; quicken, accelerate. Slang, step on the gas, give 'er the gun, burn rubber; give the bum's rush.

Adjectives — hasty, hurried, cursory, precipitate, headlong, impulsive, impetuous, eager, impatient, hotheaded; pressed for time, hard-pressed, urgent.

Adverbs — hastily, precipitately, helter-skelter, slapdash, full-tilt, headlong, on the run; against time or the clock; apace, amain; all at once (see instantaneity); at short notice, immediately (see earliness); express, posthaste; on the double. Informal, in a jiff[y].

Phrases — always in a hurry, always behind; haste is from the Devil; haste makes waste; festina lente, hasten slowly.

Quotations — If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly (Shakespeare), Make haste slowly (Augustus), Nothing is more vulgar than haste (Emerson), Wisely and slowly; they stumble that run fast (Shakespeare).

Antonyms, see slowness.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Rapidity]

Syn. speed, rapidity, expedition, dispatch, rapidness, hurry, swiftness; see also speed .

2. [Undue rapidity]

Syn. scramble, bustle, scurry, precipitation, flurry, hurly-burly, impetuosity, rashness, scuttle, impetuousness, foolhardiness, want of caution, untimeliness, hurriedness, scamper, hustling, undue celerity, press, recklessness, rush, hastiness, incautiousness, carelessness, irrationality, rashness, expedience, giddiness, precipitancy, impatience, heedlessness, plunge, unrestraint, vehemence, testiness, rapidity, excitation, fretfulness, outburst, abruptness, anticipation, intempestivity, prematureness, leap in the dark*, speed-up*, speedomania*, smoke*.

Ant. prudence*, caution, attention.

3. [Urgency]

Syn. promptness, promptitude, dispatch; see importance 2 .

• in haste,

Syn. hastening, in a hurry, moving fast; see hurrying .

• make haste,

Syn. hurry, move quickly, act quickly, speed up; see hasten 1 .

Syn.- haste implies quick or precipitate movement or action, as from the pressure of circumstances or intense eagerness; hurry , often interchangeable with haste , specifically suggests excitement, bustle, or confusion [ the hurry of city life ] ; speed implies rapidity of movement, operation, etc., of persons or things, suggesting effectiveness and the absence of excitement or confusion [ to increase the speed of an assembly line ] ; expedition adds to speed the implication of efficiency and stresses the facilitation of an action or procedure; dispatch comes close to expedition in meaning but more strongly stresses promptness in finishing something [ completed the report with dispatch]

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

speed, swiftness, quickness, fleetness, dispatch, celerity, hurry, hustle, rapidity, rush, velocity, promptness.

ANT.: slowness, sluggishness, delay

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I noun 1. Rapidness of movement or activity: celerity, dispatch, expedition, expeditiousness, fleetness, hurry, hustle, quickness, rapidity, rapidness, speed, speediness, swiftness. See FAST. 2. Careless headlong action: hastiness, hurriedness, precipitance, precipitancy, precipitateness, precipitation, rashness, rush. See CAREFUL. II verb To move swiftly: bolt, bucket, bustle, dart, dash, festinate, flash, fleet, flit, fly, hasten, hurry, hustle, pelt2, race, rocket, run, rush, sail, scoot, scour2, shoot, speed, sprint, tear1, trot, whirl, whisk, whiz, wing, zip, zoom. Informal: hotfoot, rip. Slang: barrel, highball. Chiefly British: nip1. Idioms: get a move on, get cracking, go like lightning, go like the wind, hotfoot it, make haste, make time, make tracks, run like the wind, shake a leg, step (or jump) on it. See MOVE.