swiftly

What it means

1. In a swift manner; quickly; with quick motion or velocity; fleetly.

   Mrs. Piper cut short these piracies by swiftly removing his spoon.

   1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 21

   3 more examples

   The head of the North Tyne is reached at Deadwater, 36 miles from Hexham. The river has its source just on the English side of the Border, at the foot of Peel Fell, the most westerly spur of the Cheviots. At first it is a sluggish stream (hence the name Deadwater) but begins to flow more swiftly before it reaches Kielder.

   1955 September, H. A. Vallance, “The Border Counties Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 594

   Strategic sites in even the remotest regions of the kingdom were swiftly fortified using forced labour.

   1999, Linda Flavell, Roger Flavell, “1066[:] The Normans Begin to Erect Castles”, in dictionary of english down through the ages[:] words & phrases born out of historical events great & small, 2005 edition, London: Kyle Cathie Limited, →ISBN, page 17

   [T]he early hostility of the Bulgarian supporters was swiftly subdued.

   2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC

In a sentence

Mrs. Piper cut short these piracies by swiftly removing his spoon.

1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 21

Where it comes from

1. Old Englishswiftlīċe“swiftly”
2. Middle Englishswiftly
3. Englishswiftly

From Middle English swiftly, swyftely, swiftliche, from Old English swiftlīċe (“swiftly”), equivalent to swift + -ly.