rapid

comparative more rapid · comparative proscribed rapider · superlative most rapid · proscribed superlative rapidest

1. Very swift or quick.

   rapid growth

   5 more examples

   a rapid stream

   rapid improvement

   Ascend my Chariot; guide the rapid Wheeles.

   1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it.[…]Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

   1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC

   Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."

   2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30

2. Steep, changing altitude quickly. (of a slope)
3. Needing only a brief exposure time. (of a lens, plate, film, etc.)
4. EnglanddialectalViolent, severe.
5. dialectalobsoleteHappy.

comparative more rapid · superlative most rapid

1. archaiccolloquialRapidly.

plural rapids

1. plural normallyA rough section of a river or stream which is difficult to navigate due to the swift and turbulent motion of the water.

   Synonyms: sault

2. datedA burst of rapid fire.
3. abbreviationellipsisboard gamesEllipsis of rapid chess.

   I haven’t played against Wesley So—I’ve played him a bunch online in rapid games, but not in classical rounds.

   2022 September 2, Nitish Pahwa, Magnus Carlsen (quoted), “The World’s Greatest Chess Player Cannot Wait to Battle His Young, Rising Rivals”, in Slate

   2 more examples

   In these rapid games we had just twenty-five minutes each to make all our moves, a far cry from traditional chess, where games can last up to seven hours.

   2010, Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess, page 41

   In order to avoid misunderstanding, I must note that I object to the attempts to displace normal chess with fast play, not rapid or blitz in general. I love them both, and, if I were to choose which to play, classic or rapid, I would choose rapid.

   2015, Mark Dvoretsky, For Friends and Colleagues, volume 2 (Reflections on My Profession)