quick

comparative quicker · comparative more quick · superlative quickest · superlative most quick · alternative pronunciation spelling kwik

1. Moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast.

   He's a quick runner.

   2 more examples

   I ran to the station – but I wasn't quick enough.

   The quickest and nimblest were probably the oxycones, throwing themselves through the water like discuses.

   2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 87

   Synonyms: fast

2. Occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly.

   That was a quick meal.

   2 more examples

   Veronica Ripley, 32, often speaks to friends about the role that video games played in her trans awakening: “I would try to explain it away, saying that I was playing the girl character because she had a smaller hitbox or quicker kill animations,” she said, referring to in-game advantages.

   2023 December 27, Zachary Small, “Video Games Let Them Choose a Role. Their Transgender Identities Flourished.”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2024

   The importance of Nowruz is reflected in an elaborate sabzi polo, the herbed rice capped with a crunchy tahdig, the crust formed from lettuce, rice mixed with yogurt or lavash or another thin flatbread. On Wednesday night, I opted for sheveed polo, a simpler and quicker dill rice, but I can’t wait to nail that crunchy tahdig tonight.

   2026 March 15, Genevieve Ko, “‘This Is the Best Dish I Have Ever Made From NYT Cooking’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2026

   Synonyms: ready, brief

3. Lively, fast-thinking, witty, intelligent.

   You have to be very quick to be able to compete in ad-lib theatrics.

   Synonyms: bright

4. Mentally agile, alert, perceptive.

   My father is old but he still has a quick wit.

5. Easily aroused to anger; quick-tempered.

   She has a very quick temper.

   2 more examples

   He is wont to be rather quick of temper when tired.

   The bishop was somewhat quick with them, and signified that he was much offended.

   1549, Hugh Latimer, The Sixth Sermon Preached Before King Edward, April 6 1549

   Synonyms: hotheaded, rattish, short-tempered, snippish, snippy

6. archaicAlive, living.

   Man is no star, but a quick coal / Of mortal fire.

   1633, George Herbert, The Temple

   2 more examples

   I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Ieſus Chriſt, who ſhall iudge the quicke and the dead at his appearing, and his kingdome:

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Timothy 4:1, column 2

   The inmost oratory of my soul, Wherein thou ever dwellest quick or dead, Is black with grief eternal for thy sake.

   1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night, section X

   Synonyms: extant

7. archaicAt the stage where it can be felt to move in the uterus.

   Whoever does any act under such circumstances that if he thereby caused death he would be guilty of culpable homicide, and does by such act cause the death of a quick unborn child, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine.

   Section 316, Penal Code (Cap. 224, 2008 Ed.) (Singapore)

8. archaicPregnant, especially at the stage where the foetus's movements can be felt; figuratively, alive with some emotion or feeling.

   she's quick; the child brags in her belly already: tis yours

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]

   2 more examples

   Invention sleeps within a skull No longer quick with light, The hive that hummed in every cell Is now sealed honey-tight.

   1941, Theodore Roethke, “Death Piece”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC, page 4

   When sentenced she sought to avoid hanging by declaring herself with child – ironically, given her favourite deception – but a ‘jury of Matrons’ found her not quick.

   2012, Jerry White, London in the Eighteenth Century, Bodley Head, published 2017, page 385

   Synonyms: expecting

9. archaicFlowing, not stagnant.

   Synonyms: running

10. archaicBurning, flammable, fiery.

    And it seemed to me that the dream smote the roof above my bed, and the roof opened and disclosed the outer dark, and in the dark travelled a bearded star, and the night was quick with fiery signs.

    1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 18

11. obsoleteFresh; bracing; sharp; keen.

    […] the ayre is quicke there, / And it perces and ſharpens the ſtomacke,

    c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

12. businessproductive; not "dead" or barren
13. crosswordingNot cryptic.
14. Being a distinctively sensitive kind of glaciomarine clay that may behave like a watery fluid under stress.

    Note that quick clay is a subet of brittle material; all quick clay is brittle, but not all brittle clay is quick.) Glaciomarine clay turns into quick clay after extensive pore water leaching by ground- and rainwater.

    2022, Anna Bondo Medhus, Lone Klinkby, Engineering Geophysics, page 227

comparative quicker · superlative quickest · alternative pronunciation spelling kwik

1. Quickly, in a quick manner.

   Get rich quick.

   2 more examples

   Come here, quick!

   If we consider how very quick the actions of the mind are performed.

   1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC

2. Answer quickly.

   Quick, how do you spell 'Krabs'?

   2006, SpongeBob SquarePants, Whale of a Birthday

plural quicks · alternative pronunciation spelling kwik

1. Raw or sensitive flesh, especially that underneath finger and toe nails.
2. Plants used in making a quickset hedge.

   The works […] are curiously hedged with quick.

   1641, John Evelyn, diary entry September 1641

3. The life; the mortal point; a vital part; a part susceptible to serious injury or keen feeling.

   This test nippeth, […] this toucheth the quick.

   1550, Hugh Latimer, Sermon Preached at Stamford, 9 October 1550

   2 more examples

   How feebly and unlike themselves they reason when they come to the quick of the difference!

   1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

   O see the fate of him whose guard was lowered!— A single misstep and we leave the quick.

   1941, Theodore Roethke, “Prognosis”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC, page 5

4. archaicwith definite articleSynonym of living (“those who are alive”).

   the quick and the dead

   Synonyms: living · Antonyms: dead, deceased, departed

5. Quitchgrass.

   Wild bird, whose warble, liquid sweet, Rings Eden thro' the budded quicks

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto LXXXVIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC

6. ball gamesA fast bowler.

present singular third person quicks · participle present quicking · participle past quicked · past quicked · alternative pronunciation spelling kwik

1. transitiveTo amalgamate surfaces prior to gilding or silvering by dipping them into a solution of mercury in nitric acid.
2. archaicpoetictransitiveTo quicken.

   I rose as if quicked by a spur I was bound to obey.

   1917, Thomas Hardy, At the Word ‘Farewell’

plural Quicks

1. A surname.