quick

Alternative forms

• kwik (eye dialect)

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwɪk/, [kʰw̥ɪk]

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɪk

Adjective

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

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

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

   He's a quick runner.

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

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

2. Occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly.

   That was a quick meal.

   • 2023 December 27, Zachary Small, “Video Games Let Them Choose a Role. Their Transgender Identities Flourished.”, in The New York Times‎:

     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.

3. Lively, fast-thinking, witty, intelligent.

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

4. Mentally agile, alert, perceptive.

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

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

   She has a very quick temper.

   He is wont to be rather quick of temper when tired.

   • 1549, Hugh Latimer, The Sixth Sermon Preached Before King Edward, April 6 1549:

     The bishop was somewhat quick with them, and signified that he was much offended.

6. (archaic) Alive, living.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Timothy 4:1, column 2:

     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:

   • 1633, George Herbert, The Temple:

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

   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night, section X:

     The inmost oratory of my soul,
     Wherein thou ever dwellest quick or dead,
     Is black with grief eternal for thy sake.

7. (archaic, of a foetus) At the stage where it can be felt to move in the uterus.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Section 316, Penal Code (Cap. 224, 2008 Ed.) (Singapore)

     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.

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

     she's quick; the child brags in her belly already: tis yours

   • 1941, Theodore Roethke, “Death Piece”, in Open House; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, 1975, →ISBN, page 4:

     Invention sleeps within a skull
     No longer quick with light,
     The hive that hummed in every cell
     Is now sealed honey-tight.

   • 2012, Jerry White, London in the Eighteenth Century, Bodley Head, published 2017, page 385:

     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.

9. (archaic, of water) Flowing, not stagnant.
10. (archaic) Burning, flammable, fiery.
    • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros‎, London: Jonathan Cape, page 18:

      And it seemed to me that the dream smote the roof above my bed, and the roof opened and disclosed the outer dark, and in the dark travelled a bearded star, and the night was quick with fiery signs.

11. (obsolete) Fresh; bracing; sharp; keen.
    • 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]:

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

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

Adverb

quick (comparative quicker, superlative quickest)

1. Quickly, in a quick manner.

   Get rich quick.

   Come here, quick!

   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:

     If we consider how very quick the actions of the mind are performed.

2. Answer quickly.
   • 2006, SpongeBob SquarePants, Whale of a Birthday:

     Quick, how do you spell 'Krabs'?

Noun

quick (plural quicks)

1. Raw or sensitive flesh, especially that underneath finger and toe nails.
2. Plants used in making a quickset hedge
   • 1641, John Evelyn, diary entry September 1641:

     The works […] are curiously hedged with quick.

3. The life; the mortal point; a vital part; a part susceptible to serious injury or keen feeling.
   • 1550, Hugh Latimer, Sermon Preached at Stamford, 9 October 1550:

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

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):

     How feebly and unlike themselves they reason when they come to the quick of the difference!

   • 1941, Theodore Roethke, “Prognosis”, in Open House; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, 1975, →ISBN, page 5:

     O see the fate of him whose guard was lowered!—
     A single misstep and we leave the quick.

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

   Antonyms: dead; (polite) deceased, departed

   the quick and the dead

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

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

6. (cricket) A fast bowler.

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To amalgamate surfaces prior to gilding or silvering by dipping them into a solution of mercury in nitric acid.
2. (transitive, archaic, poetic) To quicken.
   • 1917, Thomas Hardy, At the Word ‘Farewell’:

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

References

• “quick”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “quick”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “quick”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Etymology

From English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwik/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ik

Noun

quick m (plural quicks)

1. quick waltz

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German quick, from Old Saxon quik, from Proto-West Germanic *kwiku, from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz; also a Central Franconian form. Doublet of keck, which see for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kvɪk/, [kʋɪk]

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

quick (strong nominative masculine singular quicker, comparative quicker, superlative am quicksten)

1. (rather rare, dated) lively
   • 1896, Theodor Fontane, Effi Briest‎, Berlin: F. Fontane & Co.:

     »Eine hübsche Person«, sagte die Zwicker. »Und so quick und kasch, und ich möchte fast sagen, von einer natürlichen Anmut. Wissen Sie, liebe Baronin, daß mich diese Afra…

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1899, Theodor Fontane, chapter 12, in Der Stechlin:

     Die Wirtin des Hauses, Frau Hagelversicherungssekretär Schickedanz, hätte diesen gelegentlichen Aufenthalt der Nichte Hartwigs eigentlich beanstanden müssen, ließ es aber gehen, weil Hedwig ein heiteres, quickes und sehr anstelliges Ding war und manches besaß, was die Schickedanz mit der Ungehörigkeit des ewigen Dienstwechsels wieder aussöhnte.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Further reading

• “quick” in Duden online
• “quick” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.
• “quick” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache