quick

English Online Dictionary. What means quick‎? What does quick mean?

English

Alternative forms

• kwik (eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English quik, quic, from Old English cwic (“alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwiku, from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós (“alive”), from *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”), *gʷeyh₃w- (“to live”).

Cognate with Dutch kwik, kwiek, German keck, Danish kvik (“quick, quick-witted”) and Danish kæk (“bold; spirited”), Swedish kvick; and (from Indo-European) with Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “life”), Latin vivus, Lithuanian gývas (“alive”), Latvian dzīvs (“alive”), Russian живо́й (živój), Polish żywy (“alive”), Welsh byw (“alive”), Irish beo (“alive”), biathaigh (“feed”), Northern Kurdish jîn (“to live”), jiyan (“life”), giyan (“soul”), can (“soul”), Sanskrit जीव (jīva, “living”), Albanian nxit (“to urge, stimulate”). Doublet of jiva.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwɪk/, [kʰw̥ɪk]
• Rhymes: -ɪk

Adjective

quick (comparative quicker or more quick, superlative quickest or most quick)

1. Moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast.
2. Occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly.
3. Lively, fast-thinking, witty, intelligent.

4. Mentally agile, alert, perceptive.

5. (of people or tempers) Easily aroused to anger; quick-tempered.
6. (archaic) Alive, living.
7. (archaic, of a foetus) At the stage where it can be felt to move in the uterus.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Section 316, Penal Code (Cap. 224, 2008 Ed.) (Singapore)

     Whoever does any act under such circumstances that if he thereby caused death he would be guilty of culpable homicide, and does by such act cause the death of a quick unborn child, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine.

8. (now rare, archaic) Pregnant, especially at the stage where the foetus's movements can be felt; figuratively, alive with some emotion or feeling.
9. (archaic, of water) Flowing, not stagnant.
10. (archaic) Burning, flammable, fiery.
11. (obsolete) Fresh; bracing; sharp; keen.
12. (mining, of a vein of ore) productive; not "dead" or barren
13. (crosswording) Not cryptic.

Synonyms

• (moving with speed): fast, speedy, rapid, swift; see also Thesaurus:speedy
• (occurring in a short time): brief, momentary, short-lived; see also Thesaurus:ephemeral
• (fast-thinking): bright, droll, keen; see also Thesaurus:witty or Thesaurus:intelligent
• (easily aroused to anger): hotheaded, rattish, short-tempered, snippish, snippy
• (alive, living): extant, live, vital; see also Thesaurus:alive
• (pregnant): expecting, gravid, with child; see also Thesaurus:pregnant
• (flowing): running, fluent, fluminous; see also Thesaurus:flowing

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “moving with speed”): slow
• (antonym(s) of “alive”): dead

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adverb

quick (comparative quicker, superlative quickest)

1. Quickly, in a quick manner.
2. Answer quickly.

Derived terms

• right quick

Translations

Noun

quick (plural quicks)

1. Raw or sensitive flesh, especially that underneath finger and toe nails.
2. Plants used in making a quickset hedge
3. The life; the mortal point; a vital part; a part susceptible to serious injury or keen feeling.
4. (with "the", archaic) Synonym of living (“those who are alive”).

   Antonyms: dead; (polite) deceased, departed

5. Quitchgrass.
6. (cricket) A fast bowler.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

quick (third-person singular simple present quicks, present participle quicking, simple past and past participle quicked)

1. (transitive) To amalgamate surfaces prior to gilding or silvering by dipping them into a solution of mercury in nitric acid.
2. (transitive, archaic, poetic) To quicken.

References

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “quick”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “quick”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “quick”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

French

Etymology

From English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwik/
• Rhymes: -ik

Noun

quick m (plural quicks)

1. quick waltz

See also

• slow

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German quick, from Old Saxon quik, from Proto-West Germanic *kwiku, from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz; also a Central Franconian form. Doublet of keck, which see for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kvɪk/, [kʋɪk]

Adjective

quick (strong nominative masculine singular quicker, comparative quicker, superlative am quicksten)

1. (rather rare, dated) lively

Usage notes

• Much more common than the simplex is the pleonastic compound quicklebendig.

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

• “quick” in Duden online
• “quick” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.
• “quick” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache