Word.ws English Dictionary

quick

/kwɪk/

quick adjective: moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast.

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.
    • I ran to the station – but I wasn't quick enough.
    • He's a quick runner.
    Synonyms:
    fast
  2. Occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly.
    • That was a quick meal.
    • Veronica Ripley, 32, often speaks to friends about the role that video games played in her trans awakening: “I would try to explain it away, saying that I was playing the girl character because she had a smaller hitbox or quicker kill animations,” she said, referring to in-game advantages.2023 December 27, Zachary Small, “Video Games Let Them Choose a Role. Their Transgender Identities Flourished.”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2024
    Synonyms:
    ready, brief
  3. Lively, fast-thinking, witty, intelligent.
    • You have to be very quick to be able to compete in ad-lib theatrics.
    Synonyms:
    bright
  4. Mentally agile, alert, perceptive.
    • My father is old but he still has a quick wit.
  5. Easily aroused to anger; quick-tempered.
    • She has a very quick temper.
    • He is wont to be rather quick of temper when tired.
  6. (archaic) Alive, living.
    • I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Ieſus Chriſt, who ſhall iudge the quicke and the dead at his appearing, and his kingdome:1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Timothy 4:1, column 2
    • Man is no star, but a quick coal / Of mortal fire.1633, George Herbert, The Temple
    Synonyms:
    extant
  7. (archaic) At the stage where it can be felt to move in the uterus.
    • 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.Section 316, Penal Code (Cap. 224, 2008 Ed.) (Singapore)
  8. (archaic) Pregnant, especially at the stage where the foetus's movements can be felt; figuratively, alive with some emotion or feeling.
    • she's quick; the child brags in her belly already: tis yoursc. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • Invention sleeps within a skull
      No longer quick with light,
      The hive that hummed in every cell
      Is now sealed honey-tight.1941, Theodore Roethke, “Death Piece”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC...
    Synonyms:
    expecting
  9. (archaic) Flowing, not stagnant.
    Synonyms:
    running
  10. (archaic) Burning, flammable, fiery.
    • And it seemed to me that the dream smote the roof above my bed, and the roof opened and disclosed the outer dark, and in the dark travelled a bearded star, and the night was quick with fiery signs.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 18
  11. (obsolete) Fresh; bracing; sharp; keen.
    • […] the ayre is quicke there, / And it perces and ſharpens the ſtomacke,c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry...
  12. productive; not "dead" or barren
  13. (crosswording) Not cryptic.
  14. Being a distinctively sensitive kind of glaciomarine clay that may behave like a watery fluid under stress.
    • Note that quick clay is a subet of brittle material; all quick clay is brittle, but not all brittle clay is quick.) Glaciomarine clay turns into quick clay after extensive pore water leaching by ground- and rainwater.2022, Anna Bondo Medhus, Lone Klinkby, Engineering Geophysics, page 227

Adverb

quick (comparative quicker, superlative quickest)

  1. Quickly, in a quick manner.
    • Get rich quick.
    • Come here, quick!
  2. Answer quickly.
    • Quick, how do you spell 'Krabs'?2006, SpongeBob SquarePants, Whale of a Birthday

Noun

quick (plural quicks)

  1. Raw or sensitive flesh, especially that underneath finger and toe nails.
  2. Plants used in making a quickset hedge
    • The works […] are curiously hedged with quick.1641, John Evelyn, diary entry September 1641
  3. The life; the mortal point; a vital part; a part susceptible to serious injury or keen feeling.
    • This test nippeth, […] this toucheth the quick.1550, Hugh Latimer, Sermon Preached at Stamford, 9 October 1550
    • How feebly and unlike themselves they reason when they come to the quick of the difference!1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
  4. (archaic, with-definite-article) Synonym of living (“those who are alive”).
    • the quick and the dead
    Synonyms:
    living
    Antonyms:
    dead, deceased, departed
  5. Quitchgrass.
    • Wild bird, whose warble, liquid sweet,
      Rings Eden thro' the budded quicks1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto LXXXVIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
  6. A fast bowler.

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. (archaic, poetic, transitive) To quicken.
    • I rose as if quicked by a spur I was bound to obey.1917, Thomas Hardy, At the Word ‘Farewell’

Proper noun capitalized: Quick

Quick (plural Quicks)

  1. A surname.

quick meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

quick in Hindi

moving with speed
शीघ्र śīghra

quick in Tamil

வேகமான, விரைவு

quick in Marathi

quick, speedy, swift
शीघ्र śīghra
quick
त्वरित tvarit

quick in Urdu

moving with speed
تیز tez, جلد jald, تند tund, سریع sarī, عجول ajūl, عاجل ājil
More languagesFewer languages
quick in Bengali
শীঘ্র śīghro
quick in Telugu
శీఘ్రము śīghramu, తురుతు turutu
quick in Malayalam
ശീഘ്ര, വേഗമുള്ള, ചുറുചുറുക്കുള്ള, ദ്രുതമായ
quick in Kannada
ಚುರುಕು, ಚಾಗ, ಚೆಚ್ಚರ, ಚುರುಕಾದ
quick in Punjabi
چھیتی chetī, ਤਿੱਖਾ tikkhā
quick in Gujarati
ત્વરિત tvarit
quick in Odia
ଚଞ୍ଚଳ cañcaḷa
quick in Sanskrit
आशु āśu, शीघ्र śīghra, रघु raghu, ऋज्र ṛjra
quick in Assamese
খৰ khor
quick in Pashto
ګړندی gëṛënday
quick in Arabic
سَرِيع sarīʕ, سَرِيعٌ sarīʕun, حَيٌّ ḥayyun, جَارٍ jārin
quick in Persian
فرز ferz, چابک čâbok
quick in Thai
เร็ว reo, ไว wai
quick in Vietnamese
nhanh
quick in Myanmar
မြန် mran

Examples of quick in a sentence

  • The quickest and nimblest were probably the oxycones, throwing themselves through the water like discuses.2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 87:
  • On Wednesday night, I opted for sheveed polo, a simpler and quicker dill rice, but I can’t wait to nail that crunchy tahdig tonight.2026 March 15, Genevieve Ko, “‘This Is the Best Dish I Have Ever Made From NYT Cooking’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the...
  • The bishop was somewhat quick with them, and signified that he was much offended.1549, Hugh Latimer, The Sixth Sermon Preached Before King Edward, April 6 1549:
  • When sentenced she sought to avoid hanging by declaring herself with child – ironically, given her favourite deception – but a ‘jury of Matrons’ found her not quick.2012, Jerry White, London in the Eighteenth Century, Bodley Head, published 2017, page 385:

All 40 example sentences with quick

Synonyms of quick

17 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of quick

Forms of quick

Adjective
comparativequicker
comparativemore quick
superlativequickest
superlativemost quick
alternative pronunciation-spellingkwik
Adverb
comparativequicker
superlativequickest
Noun
pluralquicks
Verb
third-person singular presentquicks
present participlequicking
past participlequicked
pastquicked
Proper noun
pluralQuicks

Origin of quick

From Middle English quik, quic (“living, alive, active”), from Old English cwic (“alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwiku (“alive, lively quick”), from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz (“alive, lively, quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós (“alive”), from *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”), *gʷeyh₃w- (“to live”). For semantic development, compare lively. Cognate with Dutch kwik, kwiek (“lively, quick”), German keck (“sassy, cheeky”), Danish kvik (“lively, quick-witted, quick”), kvæg (“cattle”), Faroese kvikur (“quick”), Icelandic kvikur (“lively, quick”), Norn kvikk, hwikk (“living, swarming, teeming”), Norwegian kvikk (“quick, lively, quick-witted”), Swedish kvick (“quick, witty”), and also (from Indo-European) with Greek βίος (víos, “life”), Latin vivus (“alive”), Lithuanian gývas (“alive”), Latvian dzīvs (“alive”), Russian живо́й (živój, “alive, lively, quick”), Polish żywy (“alive”), Welsh byw (“alive”), Irish beo (“alive”), biathaigh (“to feed”), Northern Kurdish jîn (“to live”), jiyan (“life”), giyan (“soul”), can (“soul”), Sanskrit जीव (jīva, “alive”), Albanian nxit (“to urge, stimulate”). Doublet of jiva.

Words formed from quick

Phrases with quick

35 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with quick

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about quick

What does quick mean?
Quick means moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast.
What is quick in Hindi?
Quick in Hindi is शीघ्र (śīghra). See Quick meaning in Hindi.
How do you use quick in a sentence?
The quickest and nimblest were probably the oxycones, throwing themselves through the water like discuses.
What part of speech is quick?
Quick can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce quick?
Quick is pronounced /kwɪk/.

Words near quick in the dictionary

  1. quiching
  2. Quichua
  3. Quichuan
  4. Quichuans
  5. Quiché
  6. quick
  7. quick access recorder
  8. quick access recorders
  9. quick and dirty
  10. quick as a flash
  11. quick as a fox

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quick (page history and authors); Quick (page history and authors); quick (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); त्वरित (Marathi) (page history and authors); తురుతు (Telugu) (page history and authors); quick (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); quick (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); چھیتی (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ત્વરિત (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଚଞ୍ଚଳ (Odia) (page history and authors); ګړندی (Pashto) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-quick.ogg, En-uk-quick.ogg, en-au-quick.ogg.

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