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fasting

   Also found in: Medical, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.02 sec.
fast 1  (fst)
adj. fast·er, fast·est
1. Acting, moving, or capable of acting or moving quickly; swift.
2.
a. Accomplished in relatively little time: a fast visit.
b. Acquired quickly with little effort and sometimes unscrupulously: made a fast buck scalping tickets.
3. Quick to understand or learn; mentally agile: a class for the faster students.
4. Indicating a time somewhat ahead of the actual time: The clock is fast.
5. Allowing rapid movement or action: a fast running track.
6. Designed for or compatible with a short exposure time: fast film.
7.
a. Disposed to dissipation; wild: ran with a fast crowd.
b. Flouting conventional moral standards; sexually promiscuous.
8. Resistant, as to destruction or fading: fast colors.
9. Firmly fixed or fastened: a fast grip.
10. Fixed firmly in place; secure: shutters that are fast against the rain.
11. Firm in loyalty: fast friends.
12. Lasting; permanent: fast rules and regulations.
13. Deep; sound: in a fast sleep.
adv. faster, fastest
1. In a secure manner; tightly: hold fast.
2. To a sound degree; deeply: fast asleep.
3. In a rapid manner; quickly.
4. In quick succession: New ideas followed fast.
5. Ahead of the correct or expected time: a watch that runs fast.
6. In a dissipated, immoderate way: living fast.
7. Archaic Close by; near.

[Middle English, from Old English fæst, firm, fixed; see past- in Indo-European roots.]
Synonyms: fast1, rapid, swift, fleet2, speedy, quick, hasty, expeditious
These adjectives refer to something marked by great speed. Fast and rapid are often used interchangeably, though fast is more often applied to the person or thing in motion, and rapid, to the activity or movement involved: a fast runner; rapid strides.
Swift suggests smoothness and sureness of movement (a swift current), and fleet, lightness of movement (The cheetah is the fleetest of animals). Speedy refers to velocity (a speedy train) or to promptness or hurry (a speedy resolution to the problem). Quick most often applies to what takes little time or to what is prompt: a quick snack; your quick reaction.
Hasty implies hurried action (a hasty visit) and often a lack of care or thought (regretted the hasty decision). Expeditious suggests rapid efficiency: sent the package by the most expeditious means. See Also Synonyms at faithful.
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.fastingfasting - abstaining from food
abstinence - act or practice of refraining from indulging an appetite
dieting, diet - the act of restricting your food intake (or your intake of particular foods)
hunger strike - a voluntary fast undertaken as a means of protest
Ramadan - (Islam) a fast (held from sunrise to sunset) that is carried out during the Islamic month of Ramadan

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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
Celsus could never have spoken it as a physician, had he not been a wise man withal, when he giveth it for one of the great precepts of health and lasting, that a man do vary, and interchange contraries, but with an inclination to the more benign extreme: use fasting and full eating, but rather full eating; watching and sleep, but rather sleep; sitting and exercise, but rather exercise; and the like.
Let the sons of the Achaeans, say I, fight fasting and without food, till we have avenged them; afterwards at the going down of the sun let them eat their fill.
As lightly from his grassy couch up rose Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream; Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked.
 
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