Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Hasty.
  • intransitive verb To hasten.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Hasty; hurried.
  • To quicken the steps involuntarily when walking, as in paralysis agitans.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Hasty; hurried.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb obsolete To hurry.
  • adjective obsolete hurried, hasty

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb act or move at high speed

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin festinātus, past participle of festināre, to hasten.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin festīnātus

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Examples

  • There's also, in some of his works, a sense of festination -- of explosive speed, though that doesn't have quite the same connotation as "to festinate" -- as though the work is hurrying to get through itself before devolving into violent noise.

    "...my music is also seductive, even spiritual" Patrick J. Smith 2008

  • There's also, in some of his works, a sense of festination -- of explosive speed, though that doesn't have quite the same connotation as "to festinate" -- as though the work is hurrying to get through itself before devolving into violent noise.

    Archive 2008-12-01 Patrick J. Smith 2008

  • Nuntiate autem patri meo omnem gloriam meam in Aegypto, et omnia quae vidistis: et festinate, et descendere facite patrem meum huc.

    Commentary on Genesis - Volume 2 1509-1564 1996

  • Advise the duke, where you are going, to a most festinate preparation: we are bound to the like.

    Act III. Scene VII. King Lear 1914

  • But RIM needs to be careful, because innovations from elsewhere could signal its festinate demise.

    InformationWeek - All Stories And Blogs Fritz Nelson 2010

  • But RIM needs to be careful, because innovations from elsewhere could signal its festinate demise.

    InformationWeek - All Stories And Blogs Fritz Nelson 2010

  • But RIM needs to be careful, because innovations from elsewhere could signal its festinate demise.

    InformationWeek - All Stories And Blogs 2010

  • But RIM needs to be careful, because innovations from elsewhere could signal its festinate demise.

    InformationWeek - All Stories And Blogs Fritz Nelson 2010

  • But RIM needs to be careful, because innovations from elsewhere could signal its festinate demise.

    InformationWeek - All Stories And Blogs 2010

  • But RIM needs to be careful, because innovations from elsewhere could signal its festinate demise.

    InformationWeek - All Stories And Blogs Fritz Nelson 2010

Comments

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  • Wonderful! I hadn't run across this one before. It reminds me of the words of Caesar, Festina lente!

    September 23, 2008