Word.ws English Dictionary

haste

/heɪst/

haste noun: speed; swiftness; dispatch.

Noun

haste (usually uncountable, plural hastes)

  1. (usually) Speed; swiftness; dispatch.
    • We were running late so we finished our meal in haste.
    • The king's business required haste.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 12:8
  2. (obsolete, usually) Urgency; sudden excitement of feeling or passion; precipitance; vehemence.
    • I said in my haste, All men are liars.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 116:11

Verb

haste (third-person singular simple present hastes, present participle hasting, simple past and past participle hasted)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To urge onward; to hasten.
    • Baſſ. You may doe ſo, but let it be ſo haſted that ſupper be readie at the fartheſt by fiue of the clocke.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. (archaic, intransitive) To move with haste.
    • The city is amaz'd, for Sylla hastes / To enter Rome with fury, sword and fire.1594, “The Wounds of Civill War”, in A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VII (4th edition)
    • He hastes away to another, whom his affairs have called to a distant place, and, having seen the empty house, goes away disgusted by a disappointment which could not be intended, because it could not be foreseen.1825, Samuel Johnson, The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes

Proper noun capitalized: Haste

Haste (plural Hastes)

  1. A surname from Old French.

haste meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

haste in Hindi

haste, speed, swiftness, hurry
शीघ्रता śīghratā
haste, speed, swiftness
जल्द jald
haste, restlessness
आतुरता āturtā
haste, hurry
हड़बड़ाहट haṛbaṛāhaṭ

haste in Tamil

பதற்றம், விரைவு

haste in Marathi

haste, bustle, commotion, hubbub
गडबड gaḍbaḍ

haste in Urdu

haste, hurry
ہڑبڑاہٹ haṛbaṛāhaṭ
More languagesFewer languages
haste in Bengali
গড়বড় goṛoboṛ
haste in Telugu
హడావిడి haḍāviḍi
haste in Malayalam
തിരക്ക്, തീക്ഷ്ണത, ബദ്ധപ്പാട്, തിടുക്കം
haste in Kannada
ಆತುರ, ಅವಸರ, ತರಾತುರಿ, ತ್ವರೆ
haste in Gujarati
દોડધામ doḍdhām
haste in Sanskrit
त्वरि tvari, त्वरित tvarita, जव jáva, वेग véga
haste in Sinhala
කඩිනම kaḍinama

Examples of haste in a sentence

  • There was a stampede as the congressmen jumped the banister in their hastes to be the first to sign away their souls.2017, Russell M. Peterson, The Armies of Forever, page 368:
  • Samson hastes not; but neither does he pause to rest.1881, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present:
  • For a few minutes, the sharp cracking of guns ahead warned them to haste, but finally the reports dwindled to an occasional shot, presently ceasing altogether.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 133:

All 32 example sentences with haste

Synonyms of haste

All synonyms of haste

Forms of haste

Noun
pluralhastes
Verb
third-person singular presenthastes
present participlehasting
past participlehasted
pasthasted
Proper noun
pluralHastes

Origin of haste

Blend of Middle English hasten (verb), (compare Dutch haasten, German hasten, Danish haste, Swedish hasta (“to hasten, rush”)) and Middle English hast (“haste”, noun), from Old French haste (whence French hâte), from Old Frankish *hai(f)st (“violence”), from Proto-Germanic *haifstiz (“struggle, conflict”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeyp- (“to ridicule, mock, anger”). Akin to Old Frisian hāst, hāste (“haste”), Old English hǣst (“violence”), Old English hǣste (“violent, impetuous, vehement”, adjective), Old Norse heift /heipt (“feud”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍆𐍃𐍄𐍃 (haifsts, “rivalry”). Cognate with German heftig (“vehement”) and Danish heftig (“vehement”).

Metonymic occupation surname for someone who turned the spit for roasting meat, from Old French haste (“spit”).

Words formed from haste

Phrases with haste

Words that rhyme with haste

23 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about haste

What does haste mean?
Haste means speed; swiftness; dispatch.
What is haste in Hindi?
Haste in Hindi is शीघ्रता (śīghratā), जल्द (jald), आतुरता (āturtā). See Haste meaning in Hindi.
How do you use haste in a sentence?
There was a stampede as the congressmen jumped the banister in their hastes to be the first to sign away their souls.
What part of speech is haste?
Haste can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce haste?
Haste is pronounced /heɪst/.
What is the plural of haste?
The plural of haste is hastes.

Words near haste in the dictionary

  1. hastas
  2. hastate
  3. hastated
  4. hastately
  5. hastatoside
  6. haste
  7. haste makes waste
  8. hasted
  9. hasteful
  10. hasteless
  11. hastelessness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: haste (page history and authors); Haste (page history and authors); आतुरता (Hindi) (page history and authors); haste (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); गडबड (Marathi) (page history and authors); ہڑبڑاہٹ (Urdu) (page history and authors); গড়বড় (Bengali) (page history and authors); హడావిడి (Telugu) (page history and authors); haste (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); haste (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); દોડધામ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); जव (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); කඩිනම (Sinhala) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “haste.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/haste. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.