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dilatory, or hesitating in decision or action; responding on the instant; immediate; as, prompt in obedience or compliance; -- said of persons. Very discerning and prompt in giving orders. Clarendon. Tell him I am prompt To lay my crown at's feet. Shak. Any you, perhaps, too prompt in your replies. Dryden.…

The book used by a prompter of a theater.

A memorandum of a sale, and time when payment is due, given to the purchaser at a sale of goods.

One who, or that which, prompts; one who admonishes or incites to action.

The quality of being prompt; quickness of decision and action when occasion demands; alacrity; as, promptitude in obedience. Men of action, of promptitude, and of courage. I. Taylor.

In a prompt manner.

Promptitude; readiness; quickness of decision or action.

Of or pertaining to preparation. [R.] Bacon.

Suggestion; incitement; prompting. [R.] Shak. Coleridge.

Not ready. [R.] Sterne.

Offhand; without previous study; extemporaneous; extempore; as, an impromptu verse.

Too prompt; too ready or eager; precipitate. -- O`ver*prompt"ness, n.

Trust; reliance; faith; confidence. Such feelings promptly yielded to his habitual affiance in the divine love. Sir J. Stephen. Lancelot, my Lancelot, thou in whom I have Most joy and most affiance. Tennyson.

To recognize; to acknowledge. [Archaic] I do agnize a natural and prompt alacrity. Shak.

A cheerful readiness, willingness, or promptitude; joyous activity; briskness; sprightliness; as, the soldiers advanced with alacrity to meet the enemy. I have not that alacrity of spirit, Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have. Shak.

To quicken; to prompt. [Obs.] To appromt our invention. Bacon.

Ready; especially fitted or qualified (to do something); quick to learn; prompt; expert; as, a pupil apt to learn; an apt scholar. "An apt wit." Johnson. Live a thousand years, I shall not find myself so apt to die. Shak. I find thee apt . . . Now, Hamlet, hear. Shak.

A prompter at a theater. [Obs.] Beau & Fl.

Rough and prompt in manner; blunt; abrupt; hluff; as, a brusque man; a brusque style.

Quality of being brusque; roughness joined with promptness; blutness. Brit. Quar.