Search the Dictionary

To resolve; to unfold; to clear. They quicken sloth, perplexities untie. Denham.

den. Grief and passion are like floods raised in little brooks by a sudden rain; they are quickly up. Dryden. A general whisper ran among the country people, that Sir Roger was up. Addison. Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate. Longfellow.

To depart quickly; to depart from. [Written also vamos, and vamoose.] [Slang, Eng. & U. S.]

Quickness of motion; swiftness; speed; celerity; rapidity; as, the velocity of wind; the velocity of a planet or comet in its orbit or course; the velocity of a cannon ball; the velocity of light.

enius; a versatile politician. Conspicuous among the youths of high promise . . . was the quick and versatile [Charles] Montagu. Macaulay.

The act of vibrating, or the state of being vibrated, or in vibratory motion; quick motion to and fro; oscillation, as of a pendulum or musical string. As a harper lays his open palm Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations. Longfellow.

One of a system of ordnance, including machine, quick-fire, coast, and field guns, of all calibers, manufactured by the combined firms of Vickers' Sons of Sheffield and Maxim of Birmingham and elsewhere, England.

A caustic application made up of equal parts of caustic potash and quicklime; -- called also Vienna caustic.

h red color, contained in the retina of human eyes and in the eyes of most animals. It is quickly bleached by light, passing through the colors, red, orange, and yellow, and then disappearing. Also called rhodopsin, and vision purple. See Optography. -- Visual ray, a line from the eye, or point of sight. -- Visual wh…

To endue with life; to make to be living; to quicken; to animate. Sitting on eggs doth vivify, not nourish. Bacon.

Nimble; light and quick; active; rapid. "His volant touch." Milton.

Turn, that is, turn over the leaf. Volti subito Etym: [It.] (Mus.), turn over quickly.

To move one way and the other with quick turns; to shake to and fro; to move vibratingly; to cause to vibrate, as a part of the body; as, to wag the head. No discerner durst wag his tongue in censure. Shak. Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. Jer. xviii. 16.

To move quickly, but with great effort; to gallop. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.]

Quick to resent a trifling affront; characterized by snappishness; irritable; irascible; petulant; snappish. He was naturally a waspish and hot man. Bp. Hall. Much do I suffer, much, to keep in peace This jealous, waspish, wrong-head, rhyming race. Pope.

ius, as the ermine and ferret. They have a slender, elongated body, and are noted for the quickness of their movements and for their bloodthirsty habit in destroying poultry, rats, etc. The ermine and some other species are brown in summer, and turn white in winter; others are brown at all seasons. Malacca weasel, the…

To throw one's self quickly, or by an abrupt motion; to turn suddenly; as, she whapped down on the floor; the fish whapped over. Bartlett.

A sudden expulsion of air from the mouth; a quick puff or slight gust, as of air or smoke. But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword The unnerved father falls. Shak. The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe, And a scornful laugh laughed he. Longfellow.

To wave or shake quickly; to cause to whiffle.

During the time that; while. [Archaic] Chaucer. Fuller. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him. Matt. v. 25.