Quick

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kwɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɪk

Origin

From Middle English quik or quic, from Old English cwic ("alive"), from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós ("alive"), from *gʷey- ("to live"), *gʷeih₃w- ("to live"). Cognate with Dutch kwik and kwiek, German keck, Swedish kvick; and (from Indo-European) with Ancient Greek βίος (bios, "life"), Latin vivus, Lithuanian gývas ("alive"), Latvian dzīvs ("alive"), Russian живой, Welsh byw ("alive"), Irish beo ("alive"), biathaim ("nourish"), Kurdish jîn ("to live") and jiyan ("life"), giyan ("soul"), can ("soul"), Sanskrit जीव (jīva, "living").

Full definition of quick

Adjective

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.
2. Occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly.That was a quick meal.
3. Lively, fast-thinking, witty, intelligent.You have to be very quick to be able to compete in ad-lib theatrics.
4. Mentally agile, alert, perceptive.My father is old but he still has a quick wit.
5. Of temper: easily aroused to anger; quick-tempered.
• LatimerThe bishop was somewhat quick with them, and signified that he was much offended.
6. (archaic) Alive, living.
• Bible, 2 Timothy iv. 1the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead
• HerbertMan is no star, but a quick coal
  Of mortal fire.
• 1874, James Thomson (B.V.), , XThe inmost oratory of my soul,Wherein thou ever dwellest quick or dead,Is black with grief eternal for thy sake.
7. (archaic) Pregnant, especially at the stage where the foetus's movements can be felt; figuratively, alive with some emotion or feeling.
• Shakespeareshe's quick; the child brags in her belly already: tis yours
8. Of water: flowing.
9. Burning, flammable, fiery.
10. Fresh; bracing; sharp; keen.
• ShakespeareThe air is quick there,
  And it pierces and sharpens the stomach.
11. (mining, of a vein of ore) productive; not "dead" or barren

Synonyms

• (moving with speed) fast, speedy, rapid, swift

Antonyms

• (moving with speed) slow

Derived terms

Adverb

1. (colloquial) with speed, quicklyGet rich quick.Come here, quick!
• John LockeIf we consider how very quick the actions of the mind are performed.

Noun

1. raw or sensitive flesh, especially that underneath finger and toe nails.
2. plants used in making a quickset hedge
• EvelynThe works ... are curiously hedged with quick.
3. The life; the mortal point; a vital part; a part susceptible to serious injury or keen feeling.
• LatimerThis test nippeth, ... this toucheth the quick.
• FullerHow feebly and unlike themselves they reason when they come to the quick of the difference!
4. quitchgrass

Derived terms

• cut to the quick
• to the quick