quick

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

He's a quick runner.

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

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

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

That was a quick meal.

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:

Occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly.

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

Lively, fast-thinking, witty, intelligent.

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

She has a very quick temper.

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:

(of people or tempers) Easily aroused to anger; quick-tempered.

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:

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

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:

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)

(archaic, of a foetus) At the stage where it can be felt to move in the uterus.

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]:

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; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, 1975, →ISBN, 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:

(now rare, archaic) Pregnant, especially at the stage where the foetus's movements can be felt; figuratively, alive with some emotion or feeling.

(archaic, of water) Flowing, not stagnant.

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

c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

(mining, of a vein of ore) productive; not "dead" or barren

en-adj

quick (comparative quicker or more quick, superlative quickest or most quick)

quicker (comparative)
more quick (comparative)
quickest (superlative)
most quick (superlative)

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

From Middle English quik, quic, from Old English cwic (“alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwiku, from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós (“alive”), from *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”), *gʷeyh₃w- (“to live”).
Cognate with Dutch kwik, kwiek, German keck, Danish kvik (“quick, quick-witted”) and Danish kæk (“bold; spirited”), Swedish kvick; and (from Indo-European) with Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “life”), Latin vivus, Lithuanian gývas (“alive”), Latvian dzīvs (“alive”), Russian живо́й (živój), Polish żywy (“alive”), Welsh byw (“alive”), Irish beo (“alive”), biathaigh (“feed”), Northern Kurdish jîn (“to live”), jiyan (“life”), giyan (“soul”), can (“soul”), Sanskrit जीव (jīva, “living”), Albanian nxit (“to urge, stimulate”). Doublet of jiva.


quick

Get rich quick.

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:

Quick, how do you spell 'Krabs'?

2006, SpongeBob SquarePants, Whale of a Birthday:

en-adv

quick (comparative quicker, superlative quickest)

quicker (comparative)
quickest (superlative)


quick

Raw or sensitive flesh, especially that underneath finger and toe nails.

The works […] are curiously hedged with quick.

1641, John Evelyn, diary entry September 1641:

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

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

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; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, 1975, →ISBN, page 5:

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

the quick and the dead

(with "the", archaic) Synonym of living (“those who are alive”).

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

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


quick

(transitive) To amalgamate surfaces prior to gilding or silvering by dipping them into a solution of mercury in nitric acid.

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

1917, Thomas Hardy, At the Word ‘Farewell’:

(transitive, archaic, poetic) To quicken.

en-verb

quick (third-person singular simple present quicks, present participle quicking, simple past and past participle quicked)

quicks (present singular third-person)
quicking (participle present)
quicked (participle past)
quicked (past)