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Fast   /fæst/   Listen
adverb
Fast  adv.  
1.
In a fast, fixed, or firmly established manner; fixedly; firmly; immovably. "We will bind thee fast."
2.
In a fast or rapid manner; quickly; swiftly; extravagantly; wildly; as, to run fast; to live fast.
Fast by, or Fast beside, close or near to; near at hand. "He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk Into the wood fast by." "Fast by the throne obsequious Fame resides."


adjective
Fast  adj.  (compar. faster; superl. fastest)  
1.
Firmly fixed; closely adhering; made firm; not loose, unstable, or easily moved; immovable; as, to make fast the door. "There is an order that keeps things fast."
2.
Firm against attack; fortified by nature or art; impregnable; strong. "Outlaws... lurking in woods and fast places."
3.
Firm in adherence; steadfast; not easily separated or alienated; faithful; as, a fast friend.
4.
Permanent; not liable to fade by exposure to air or by washing; durable; lasting; as, fast colors.
5.
Tenacious; retentive. (Obs.) "Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of their smells."
6.
Not easily disturbed or broken; deep; sound. "All this while in a most fast sleep."
7.
Moving rapidly; quick in mition; rapid; swift; as, a fast horse.
8.
Given to pleasure seeking; disregardful of restraint; reckless; wild; dissipated; dissolute; as, a fast man; a fast liver.
9.
In such a condition, as to resilience, etc., as to make possible unusual rapidity of play or action; as, a fast racket, or tennis court; a fast track; a fast billiard table, etc.
Fast and loose, now cohering, now disjoined; inconstant, esp. in the phrases to play at fast and loose, to play fast and loose, to act with giddy or reckless inconstancy or in a tricky manner; to say one thing and do another. "Play fast and loose with faith."
Fast and loose pulleys (Mach.), two pulleys placed side by side on a revolving shaft, which is driven from another shaft by a band, and arranged to disengage and reengage the machinery driven thereby. When the machinery is to be stopped, the band is transferred from the pulley fixed to the shaft to the pulley which revolves freely upon it, and vice versa.
Hard and fast (Naut.), so completely aground as to be immovable.
To make fast (Naut.), to make secure; to fasten firmly, as a vessel, a rope, or a door.


noun
Fast  n.  
1.
Abstinence from food; omission to take nourishment. "Surfeit is the father of much fast."
2.
Voluntary abstinence from food, for a space of time, as a spiritual discipline, or as a token of religious humiliation.
3.
A time of fasting, whether a day, week, or longer time; a period of abstinence from food or certain kinds of food; as, an annual fast.
Fast day, a day appointed for fasting, humiliation, and religious offices as a means of invoking the favor of God.
To break one's fast, to put an end to a period of abstinence by taking food; especially, to take one's morning meal; to breakfast.


Fast  n.  That which fastens or holds; especially, (Naut.) a mooring rope, hawser, or chain; called, according to its position, a bow, head, quarter, breast, or stern fast; also, a post on a pier around which hawsers are passed in mooring.


verb
Fast  v. i.  (past & past part. fasted; pres. part. fasting)  
1.
To abstain from food; to omit to take nourishment in whole or in part; to go hungry. "Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked."
2.
To practice abstinence as a religious exercise or duty; to abstain from food voluntarily for a time, for the mortification of the body or appetites, or as a token of grief, or humiliation and penitence. "Thou didst fast and weep for the child."
Fasting day, a fast day; a day of fasting.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Fast" Quotes from Famous Books



... I was to be called upon to draw a picture of the times and of men, from what I have seen, and heard, and in part know, I should in one word say that idleness, dissipation and extravagance seems to have laid fast hold of most of them. That speculation—peculation—and an insatiable thirst for riches seems to have got the better of every other consideration and almost of every order of men. That party disputes and personal quarrels are ...
— George Washington • William Roscoe Thayer
... abstract terms of a language are not so distinctly apprehended as the more concrete, and in the course of ages are more liable to change. The habit, universal among the writers of the Scriptures from the most ancient to the latest, of making abstract moral conceptions fast to pillars of natural objects and current facts, has contributed much to fix the doctrines like fossils for all time, and so to diminish the area of controversy. All the more steadily and safely has revealed truth come down from the earliest time to the present day, that it has in ...
— The Parables of Our Lord • William Arnot
... measure, almost as late indeed as Napoleon's proposition to send me as his Minister Plenipotentiary to Switzerland. In now accepting office I was well convinced of the inutility of any effort that might be made to arrest the progress of the fast approaching and menacing events. Being introduced into the King's cabinet his Majesty asked me what I thought of the situation of affairs. "I think, Sire, that Bonaparte will be here in five or six days."—"What, sir?"—"Yes, Sire."—"But ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton
... and I bore straight for them. Raced to see who would first back, and I won. Backed a big bull, and Silva gave him the iron deep. He flurried without sounding, and I did not have to lance. Garboy backed his whale and Lord Joe made a poor cast, and they lost the fish. I backed a cow, and made fast. She sounded, but we overhauled at her first blow, and I lanced. Short flurry. Two fish in ...
— Fire Mountain - A Thrilling Sea Story • Norman Springer
... the Solomon Group, waiting for her boat. Von Hammer and four hands had gone ashore to land supplies for a trader, and the brig was awaiting his return. There was a heavy sea running on the reef as the boat pushed off from the beach in the fast-gathering darkness; but who minds such things with a native crew? So thought Von Hammer as he grasped the long, swaying steer oar, and swung the whale-boat's head to the white line of surf. 'Give it to her, boys; now's our chance—there's a bit of a lull now, eh, ...
— Ridan The Devil And Other Stories - 1899 • Louis Becke


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