fast

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: AS. fæstan; akin to D. vasten, OHG. fastēn, G. fasten, Icel. & Sw. fasta, Dan. faste, Goth. fastan to keep, observe, fast, and prob. to E. fast firm.

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.— John Milton

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.— 2 Sam. xii. 21.

Fasting day, a fast day; a day of fasting.

Origin: OE. faste, fast; cf. AS. fæsten, OHG. fasta, G. faste. See Fast, intransitive verb

1. Abstinence from food; omission to take nourishment.

Surfeit is the father of much fast.— William Shakespeare

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. William Shakespeare

Origin: OE., firm, strong, not loose, AS. fæst; akin to OS. fast, D. vast, OHG. fasti, festi, G. fest, Icel. fastr, Sw. & Dan. fast, and perh. to E. fetter. The sense swift comes from the idea of keeping close to what is pursued; a Scandinavian use. Cf. Fast, adverb, Fast, verb, Avast.

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.— Edmund Burke

2. Firm against attack; fortified by nature or art; impregnable; strong.

Outlaws... lurking in woods and fast places.— Edmund Spenser

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. obsolete

Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of their smells.— Francis, Baron Verulam Bacon

6. Not easily disturbed or broken; deep; sound.

All this while in a most fast sleep.— William Shakespeare

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. William M. Thackeray

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.” William Shakespeare — Fast and loose pulleys Machinery, two pulleys placed side by side on a revolving shaft, which is driven from another shaft by a band, and arranged to disengage and reëngage 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 Nautical, so completely aground as to be immovable. — To make fast Nautical, to make secure; to fasten firmly, as a vessel, a rope, or a door.

Origin: OE. faste firmly, strongly, quickly, AS. fæste. See Fast, adjective

1. In a fast, fixed, or firmly established manner; fixedly; firmly; immovably.

We will bind thee fast.— Judg. xv. 13.

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.— John Milton

Fast by the throne obsequious Fame resides.— Alexander Pope

That which fastens or holds; especially, Nautical 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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: 1913 supplement

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(1996-05-19)