Hypertext Webster Gateway: "fast"

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked.
--Milton.

2. To practice abstinence as a religious exercise or duty; to
abstain from food voluntarily for a time, for the
mortification of the body or appetites, or as a token of
grief, or humiliation and penitence.

Thou didst fast and weep for the child. --2 Sam.
xii. 21.

{Fasting day}, a fast day; a day of fasting.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

We will bind thee fast. --Judg. xv.
13.

2. In a fast or rapid manner; quickly; swiftly;
extravagantly; wildly; as, to run fast; to live fast.

{Fast by}, or {Fast beside}, close or near to; near at hand.

He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk Into the wood
fast by. --Milton.

Fast by the throne obsequious Fame resides. --Pope.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Surfeit is the father of much fast. --Shak.

2. Voluntary abstinence from food, for a space of time, as a
spiritual discipline, or as a token of religious
humiliation.

3. A time of fasting, whether a day, week, or longer time; a
period of abstinence from food or certain kinds of food;
as, an annual fast.

{Fast day}, a day appointed for fasting, humiliation, and
religious offices as a means of invoking the favor of God.

{To break one's fast}, to put an end to a period of
abstinence by taking food; especially, to take one's
morning meal; to breakfast. --Shak.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

There is an order that keeps things fast. --Burke.

2. Firm against attack; fortified by nature or art;
impregnable; strong.

Outlaws . . . lurking in woods and fast places.
--Spenser.

3. Firm in adherence; steadfast; not easily separated or
alienated; faithful; as, a fast friend.

4. Permanent; not liable to fade by exposure to air or by
washing; durable; lasting; as, fast colors.

5. Tenacious; retentive. [Obs.]

Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of their
smells. --Bacon.

6. Not easily disturbed or broken; deep; sound.

All this while in a most fast sleep. --Shak.

7. Moving rapidly; quick in mition; rapid; swift; as, a fast
horse.

8. Given to pleasure seeking; disregardful of restraint;
reckless; wild; dissipated; dissolute; as, a fast man; a
fast liver. --Thackeray.

{Fast and loose}, now cohering, now disjoined; inconstant,
esp. in the phrases to play at fast and loose, to play
fast and loose, to act with giddy or reckless inconstancy
or in a tricky manner; to say one thing and do another.
``Play fast and loose with faith.'' --Shak.

{Fast and loose pulleys} (Mach.), two pulleys placed side by
side on a revolving shaft, which is driven from another
shaft by a band, and arranged to disengage and re["e]ngage
the machinery driven thereby. When the machinery is to be
stopped, the band is transferred from the pulley fixed to
the shaft to the pulley which revolves freely upon it, and
vice versa.

{Hard and fast} (Naut.), so completely aground as to be
immovable.

{To make fast} (Naut.), to make secure; to fasten firmly, as
a vessel, a rope, or a door.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

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