haste

[heyst] /heɪst/
noun
1.
swiftness of motion; speed; celerity:
He performed his task with great haste. They felt the need for haste.
2.
urgent need of quick action; a hurry or rush:
to be in haste to get ahead in the world.
3.
unnecessarily quick action; thoughtless, rash, or undue speed:
Haste makes waste.
verb (used without object), verb (used with object), hasted, hasting.
4.
Archaic. to hasten.
Idioms
5.
make haste, to act or go with speed; hurry:
She made haste to tell the president the good news.
Origin
1250-1300; Middle English < Old French < Germanic; akin to Old Frisian hāste, Old English hæst violence, Old Norse heifst hatred, Gothic haifsts quarrel
Related forms
hasteful, adjective
hastefully, adverb
hasteless, adjective
hastelessness, noun
unhasted, adjective
unhasting, adjective
Synonyms
1. See speed. 2. flurry, bustle, ado, urgency. 3. precipitancy, precipitation.
Antonyms
1. sloth.
Examples from the web for haste
  • The leaders may regret the haste with which they built the high-speed rail network.
  • If the scale of the downturn calls for bold stimulus, the speed at which the economy is deteriorating calls for haste.
  • But in your haste to order gifts online, don't leave yourself vulnerable to credit card fraud or identity theft.
  • As a result of the haste, an enormous amount of shoddy construction had to be replaced.
  • In the haste to flee the storm, she left her wedding ring on the table next to the bed.
  • In their haste to gloat, observers have been less than balanced in their analyses of the failures.
  • No one appreciated better than he the irony in the sudden desire for haste.
  • He left the bucket on the well and in his haste he came into the lodge without wiping his feet.
  • Please let March get here with haste.
  • Some passages are brilliant, glittering with insights, while others bear the marks of haste and melodramatic excess.
British Dictionary definitions for haste

haste

/heɪst/
noun
1.
speed, esp in an action; swiftness; rapidity
2.
the act of hurrying in a careless or rash manner
3.
a necessity for hurrying; urgency
4.
make haste, to hurry; rush
verb
5.
a poetic word for hasten
Derived Forms
hasteful, adjective
hastefully, adverb
Word Origin
C14: from Old French haste, of Germanic origin; compare Old Norse heifst hate, Old English hǣst strife, Old High German heisti powerful
Word Origin and History for haste
n.

early 13c., from Old French haste "haste, urgency, hastiness" (12c., Modern French hâte), from Frankish *haifst "violence," from West Germanic *haifstiz (cf. Gothic haifsts "strife," Old English hæste "violent, vehement, impetuous"). To make haste is recorded by 1530s.

v.

late 13c., from Old French haster (Modern French hâter), from haste (see haste). Now largely superseded by hasten (1560s).

Idioms and Phrases with haste

haste

In addition to the idiom beginning with haste also see: make haste