What does "fast" mean?
A train that calls at only some stations it passes between its origin and destination, typically just the principal stations.
Fast
/fɑːst/ adj, adv, intj, name, noun, phrase, verb
adj, adv, intj, name, noun, phrase, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A train that calls at only some stations it passes between its origin and destination, typically just the principal stations.
- Grammar: fast is listed as adj, adv, intj, name, noun, phrase, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: fasting, abandoned, abstain, abstain.
- Useful contrasts: slow, creeping motion, larghetto.
- Usage evidence: I found a solution, but I found it so fast that it can't be the right solution.
How to use "fast"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "fast" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "fast" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "fast" as the right word for your sentence.
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Compare nearby meanings
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- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
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Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "fast" is acting as adj, adv, intj, name, noun, phrase, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
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3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
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Final meaning check
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Definitions
Noun
- 1 A train that calls at only some stations it passes between its origin and destination, typically just the principal stations. British
- 2 The act or practice of fasting, religious abstinence from food.
"1677 George Fox, The Hypocrites Fast and Feast Not God's Holy Day, p. 8 (paraphrasing Matthew 6:16-18). And is it not the Command of Christ, that in their Fast they should not appear unto men to fast?"
- 3 Acronym of focused assessment with sonography for trauma. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, countable, uncountable
- 4 abstaining from food wordnet
- 5 Any of the fasting periods in the liturgical year.
"1662 Peter Gunning, The Holy Fast of Lent Defended Against All Its Prophaners: Or, a Discourse, Shewing that Lent-Fast was First Taught the World by the Apostles (1677 [1662]), p. 13 (translation of the Paschal Epistle of Theophilus of Alexandria). And so may we enter the Fasts at hand, beginning Lent the 30th. day of the Month Mechir"
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 Acronym of firefighter assist and search team. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, countable, uncountable
- 7 Acronym of free advertising-supported streaming television abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, countable, uncountable
Verb
- 1 To practice religious abstinence, especially from food. intransitive
"Thou didst fast and weep for the child."
- 2 abstain from eating wordnet
- 3 To reduce or limit one's nutrition intake for medical or health reasons, to diet. intransitive
"The ideal would be to fast in a situation where you are not tempted by food"
- 4 abstain from certain foods, as for religious or medical reasons wordnet
- 5 To cause (a person or animal) to abstain, especially from eating. transitive
"At 11 weeks of age, all mice were fasted overnight and underwent gallbladder ultrasonography to determine ejection fraction."
Adjective
- 1 Firmly or securely fixed in place; stable. dated
"That rope is dangerously loose. Make it fast!"
- 2 An acronym for remembering desirable characteristics for goal-setting: frequently discussed, ambitious, specific, transparent. abbreviation, acronym, mnemonic, not-comparable
"What’s more, FAST goals work well across a wide range of industries. Technology companies such as Google, Intuit, and Netflix use an approach called objectives and key results (OKRs) to put these principles into action. FAST goals are also used in companies in more traditional industries, including AB InBev, Burger King, and Kraft Heinz."
- 3 Firm against attack; fortified by nature or art; impregnable; strong.
"out-lawes […] lurking in woods and fast places"
- 4 Steadfast, with unwavering feeling. (Now mostly in set phrases like fast friend(s).)
"I still hear you sayin', "Dear one, hold me fast""
- 5 Moving with great speed, or capable of doing so; swift, rapid; light.
"I am going to buy a fast car."
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- 6 Moving with great speed, or capable of doing so; swift, rapid; light.; Having a kinetic energy between 1 million and 20 million electron volts; often used to describe the energy state of free neutrons at the moment of their release by a nuclear fission or nuclear fusion reaction (i.e., before the neutrons have been slowed down by anything).
"Plutonium-240 has a much higher fission cross-section for fast neutrons than for thermal neutrons."
- 7 Of a place, characterised by business, hustle and bustle, etc.
"Sydney is a fast city, and the pace is becoming increasingly more frantic."
- 8 Causing unusual rapidity of play or action.
"a fast racket, or tennis court"
- 9 Able to transfer data in a short period of time.
"But at the microlevel it consists of an unimaginable number of atoms connected by springy chemical bonds, all jiggling around at a rate that even our fastest supercomputer might envy."
- 10 Deep or sound (of sleep); fast asleep (of people).
"Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon’t, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep."
- 11 Not running or fading when subjected to detrimental conditions such as wetness or intense light; permanent.
"All the washing has come out pink. That red tee-shirt was not fast."
- 12 Tenacious; retentive. obsolete
"Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of their smells."
- 13 Having an extravagant lifestyle or immoral habits. dated
"a fast woman"
- 14 Uncharacteristically mature or promiscuous for one's age. dated, offensive, vernacular
"[…] if she is of the slightly faster kind that gives smart lunch parties at the Strand Corner House, her diet is sometimes a little stronger; she takes to novels of the orchid house and the tiger's lair, to the artless erotics of Miss Elinor Glyn, Mr Hubert Wales, and Miss Victoria Cross."
- 15 Ahead of the correct time or schedule.
"There must be something wrong with the hall clock. It is always fast."
- 16 More sensitive to light than average.
Adjective
- 1 (of a photographic lens or emulsion) causing a shortening of exposure time wordnet
- 2 unwavering in devotion to friend or vow or cause wordnet
- 3 acting or moving or capable of acting or moving quickly wordnet
- 4 at a rapid tempo wordnet
- 5 (used of timepieces) indicating a time ahead of or later than the correct time wordnet
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 securely fixed in place wordnet
- 7 hurried and brief wordnet
- 8 unrestrained by convention or morality wordnet
- 9 resistant to destruction or fading wordnet
- 10 (of surfaces) conducive to rapid speeds wordnet
Adverb
- 1 In a firm or secure manner, securely; in such a way as not to be moved; safe, sound .
"Hold this rope as fast as you can."
- 2 Deeply or soundly .
"The princess was sleeping fast, and her servants were fast asleep too."
- 3 Immediately following in place or time; close, very near .
"The horsemen came fast on our heels."
- 4 Quickly, with great speed; within a short time .
"Do it as fast as you can."
- 5 Ahead of the correct time or schedule.
"I think my watch is running fast."
Adverb
- 1 quickly or rapidly (often used as a combining form) wordnet
- 2 firmly or closely wordnet
Intj
- 1 Ellipsis of stand fast, a warning not to pass between the arrow and the target. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
Phrase
- 1 Acronym of facial drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulty, time, a mnemonic for diagnosing a CVA or stroke. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
Proper Noun
- 1 Initialism of Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 2 A surname.
Example
"I found a solution, but I found it so fast that it can't be the right solution."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "fast"?
Common synonyms include: fasting, abandoned, abstain, abstain, abstainment, abstemiousness.
How do you use "fast" in a sentence?
I found a solution, but I found it so fast that it can't be the right solution.
How do you pronounce "fast"?
Pronounced /fɑːst/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English fast, fest, from Old English fæst (“firm, secure”), from Proto-West Germanic *fast, from Proto-Germanic *fastuz; see it for cognates and further etymology. The development of “rapid” from an original sense of “secure” apparently happened first in the adverb and then transferred to the adjective; compare hard in expressions like “to run hard”. The original sense of “secure, firm” is now slightly archaic, but retained in the related fasten (“make secure”). Also compare close meaning change from Latin rapiō (“to snatch”) to Latin rapidus (“rapid, quick”), from Irish sciob (“to snatch”) to Irish sciobtha (“quick”).
Etymology 2
From Middle English fast, faste, from Old English fæste, from fæst + -e (adverb-forming suffix).
Etymology 3
From Middle English fasten, from Old English fæstan (“to fast”), from Proto-West Germanic *fastēn, from Proto-Germanic *fastāną (“to fast”), from the same root as Proto-Germanic *fastijaną (“to fasten”), derived from *fastuz, and thereby related to Etymology 1. The religious sense is presumably introduced in the Gothic church, from Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fastan, “hold fast (viz. to the rule of abstinence)”). This semantic development is unique to Gothic, the term glosses Greek νηστεύω (nēsteúō), Latin ieiuno which do not have similar connotations of "holding fast". The feminine noun Old High German fasta likely existed in the 8th century (shift to neuter Old High German fasten from the 9th century, whence modern German Fasten). The Old English noun originally had the sense "fortress, enclosure" and takes the religious sense only in late Old English, perhaps influenced by Old Norse fasta. The use for reduced nutrition intake for medical reasons or for weight reduction develops by the mid-1970s, back-formed from the use of the verbal noun fasting in this sense (1960s).
Etymology 4
From Middle English faste, fasten, from Old English fæsten (“fast, fasting”), from Proto-West Germanic *fastuni, from Proto-Germanic *fastu(b)nją (“fast, fasting”). Cognate with Old Frisian festene, feste (Modern West Frisian fêsten, fêste), Middle Dutch vastene (Modern Dutch vasten), Middle Low German vastene (Modern German Low German Fasten), German Faste, Fasten (“fast, fasting”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐍃𐍄𐌿𐌱𐌽𐌹 (fastubni, “fasting”). Possibly merged with Old Norse fasta (“fast, fasting”), whence also Danish faste (“fast, fasting”), Swedish fasta (“fast, fasting”).
Etymology 5
Abbreviation. Coined in recognition of the word fast, e.g. (medical sense) describing the need for speedy diagnosis and treatment.