Hasten

//ˈheɪ.sn̩// name, verb

name, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To move or act in a quick fashion. intransitive
  2. 2
    act at high speed wordnet
  3. 3
    To make someone speed up or make something happen quicker. transitive

    "I would hasten my escape from the windy storm."

  4. 4
    cause to occur rapidly wordnet
  5. 5
    To cause some scheduled event to happen earlier. transitive

    "The decision to hasten completion of the electrification of London Midland Region main lines from Euston to the north and the subsequent diversion of some traffic to the Western Region in order to allow the engineers fuller track occupation, have focused attention on the two main routes between London, Birmingham and Wolverhampton."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    move hurridly wordnet
  2. 7
    speed up the progress of; facilitate wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from Dutch.

Synonyms

All synonyms
rushaccelerateexpeditehurryhurryrace

Example

More examples

"I must hasten to add that I do not mean to blame him."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Originally intransitive, from haste + -en (verbal suffix).

Etymology 2

Shortened form of Dutch van Hasten.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.