Word.ws English Dictionary

more haste, less speed

more haste, less speed proverb: when one is in a hurry, one often ends up having less success and completing a task more slowly.

Proverb

more haste, less speed

  1. When one is in a hurry, one often ends up having less success and completing a task more slowly.

Origin of more haste, less speed

The word speed is used here in the dated sense of “success, luck” (compare Godspeed), though probably with a pun on the sense “velocity”. Compare the same in Low German je gröter Hast, je minder Spood.

Questions about more haste, less speed

What does more haste, less speed mean?
More haste, less speed means when one is in a hurry, one often ends up having less success and completing a task more slowly.
What part of speech is more haste, less speed?
More haste, less speed is a proverb.

Words near more haste, less speed in the dictionary

  1. more cushion for the pushin'
  2. more dead than alive
  3. more dollars than sense
  4. more equal
  5. more grease to your elbow
  6. more haste, less speed
  7. more heat than light
  8. more honored in the breach
  9. more important fish to fry
  10. more is more
  11. more kicks than ha'pence

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: more haste, less speed (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-more haste, less speed.wav.

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