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Webster 1913 Edition

Speed

Speed

,
Noun.
[AS.
sp[GREEK]d
success, swiftness, from
sp[GREEK]wan
to succeed; akin to D.
spoed
d, OHG.
spuot
success,
spuot
to succees, Skr.
sphā
to increase, grow fat. √170b.]
1.
Prosperity in an undertaking; favorable issue; success.
“For common speed.”
Chaucer.
O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good
speed
this day.
Gen. xxiv. 12.
2.
The act or state of moving swiftly; swiftness; velocity; rapidly; rate of motion; dispatch;
as, the
speed
a horse or a vessel
.
Speed
, to describe whose swiftness number fails.
Milton.
☞ In kinematics, speedis sometimes used to denote the amount of velocity without regard to direction of motion, while velocity is not regarded as known unless both the direction and the amount are known.
3.
One who, or that which, causes or promotes speed or success.
[Obs.]
“Hercules be thy speed!”
Shak.
God speed
,
Good speed; prosperity. See
Godspeed
.
–
Speed gauge
,
Speed indicator
, and
Speed recorder
(Mach.)
,
devices for indicating or recording the rate of a body’s motion, as the number of revolutions of a shaft in a given time.
–
Speed lathe
(Mach.)
,
a power lathe with a rapidly revolving spindle, for turning small objects, for polishing, etc.; a hand lathe.
–
Speed pulley
,
a cone pulley with steps.
Syn. – Haste; swiftness; celerity; quickness; dispatch; expedition; hurry; acceleration. See
Haste
.

Speed

(spēd)
,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Sped
(spĕd)
,
Speeded
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Speeding
.]
[AS.
spēdan
, fr.
spēd
, n.; akin to D.
spoeden
, G. sich
sputen
. See
Speed
,
Noun.
]
1.
To go; to fare.
[Obs.]
To warn him now he is too farre
sped
.
Remedy of Love.
2.
To experience in going; to have any condition, good or ill; to fare.
Shak.
Ships heretofore in seas like fishes
sped
;
The mightiest still upon the smallest fed.
Waller.
3.
To fare well; to have success; to prosper.
Save London, and send true lawyers their meed!
For whoso wants money with them shall not
speed
!
Lydgate.
I told ye then he should prevail, and
speed

On his bad errand.
Milton.
4.
To make haste; to move with celerity.
I have
speeded
hither with the very extremest inch of possibility.
Shakespeare
5.
To be expedient.
[Obs.]
Wyclif (2 Cor. xii. 1.)

Speed

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To cause to be successful, or to prosper; hence, to aid; to favor.
“Fortune speed us!”
Shak.
With rising gales that
speed
their happy flight.
Dryden.
2.
To cause to make haste; to dispatch with celerity; to drive at full speed; hence, to hasten; to hurry.
He
sped
him thence home to his habitation.
Fairfax.
3.
To hasten to a conclusion; to expedite.
Judicial acts . . . are
sped
in open court at the instance of one or both of the parties.
Ayliffe.
4.
To hurry to destruction; to put an end to; to ruin; to undo.
“Sped with spavins.”
Shak.
A dire dilemma! either way I 'm
sped
.
If foes, they write, if friends, they read, me dead.
Pope.
5.
To wish success or god fortune to, in any undertaking, especially in setting out upon a journey.
Welcome the coming,
speed
the parting guest.
Pope.
God speed you
,
them
,
etc., may God speed you; or, may you have good speed.
Syn. – To dispatch; hasten; expedite; accelerate; hurry.

Webster 1828 Edition

Speed

SPEED

,
Verb.
I.
pret. and pp. sped, speeded. [The L. expedio may be from the same root, which signifies to drive, to hurry, of the family of L. peto.]
1.
To make haste; to move with celerity.
2.
To have success; to prosper; to succeed; that is, to advance in one's enterprise. He that's once demi'd will hardly speed. Those that profaned and abused the second temple, sped no better.
3.
To have any condition good or ill; to fare. Ships heretofore in seas like fishes sped, The mightiest still upon the smallest fed.

SPEED

, v.t.
1.
TO dispatch; to send away in haste. He sped him thence home to his habitation.
2.
To hasten; to hurry; to put in quick motion. -But sped his steps along the hoarse resounding shore.
3.
TO hasten to a conclusion; to execute; to dispatch; as, to speed judicial acts.
4.
To assist; to help forward; to hasten. -With rising gales that sped their happy flight.
5.
To prosper; to cause to succeed. May heaven speed this undertaking.
6.
To furnish in haste.
7.
To dispatch; to kill; to ruin; to destroy. With a speeding thrust his heart he found. A dire dilemma! either way I'm sped; If foes, they write if friends they read me dead.
Note In the phrase, 'God speed,' there is probably a gross mistake in considering it as equivalent to 'may God give you success.' The true phrase is probably 'good speed; good, in Saxon, being written god. I bid you or wish you good speed, that is, good success.

SPEED

, n.
1.
Swiftness; quickness; celerity; applied to animals. We say, a man or a horse runs or travels with speed; a fowl flies with speed. We speak of the speed of a fish in the water, but we do not speak of the speed of a river, or of wind, or of a falling body. I think however I have seen the word applied to the lapse of time and the motion of lightning, but in poetry only.
2.
Haste; dispatch; as, to perform a journey with speed; to execute an order with speed.
3.
Rapid pace; as a horse of speed. We say also, high speed, full speed.
4.
Success; prosperity in an undertaking; favorable issue; that is, advance to the desired end. O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day. Gen. 24. This use is retained in the proverb, 'to make more haste than good speed,' and in the Scriptural phrase, 'to bid one good speed,' [Not God speed, as erroneously written.]

Definition 2024

Speed

Speed

See also: speed

English

Proper noun

Speed

  1. A surname​.

Anagrams

German

Noun

Speed n

  1. (slang) speed (amphetamine)

speed

speed

See also: Speed

English

Noun

speed ‎(plural speeds)

  1. The state of moving quickly or the capacity for rapid motion; rapidity.
    How does Usain Bolt run at that speed?
  2. The rate of motion or action, specifically (mathematics)/(physics) the magnitude of the velocity; the rate distance is traversed in a given time.
  3. (photography) The sensitivity to light of film, plates or sensor.
  4. (photography) The duration of exposure, the time during which a camera shutter is open.
  5. (photography) The largest size of the lens opening at which a lens can be used.
  6. (photography) The ratio of the focal length to the diameter of a photographic objective.
  7. (slang, uncountable) Any amphetamine drug used as a stimulant, especially illegally, especially methamphetamine.
  8. (archaic) Luck, success, prosperity.
    • Bible, Genesis xxiv. 12
      O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day.
  9. (slang) Personal preference.
    We could go to the shore next week, or somewhere else if that's not your speed.
Synonyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms

Related terms

Translations
See also

Units for measuring speed: metres/meters per second, m/s, kilometres/kilometers per hour, km/h (metric); knot, kt, kn (nautical); feet per second, ft/s, ft/sec and fps, miles per hour, mph (imperial and U.S. customary); mach (aeronautical)

Etymology 2

From Middle English speden, from Old English spēdan ‎(“to speed, prosper, succeed, have success”), from Proto-Germanic *spōdijaną ‎(“to succeed”). Cognate with Scots spede, speid ‎(“to meet with success, assist, promote, accomplish, speed”), Dutch spoeden ‎(“to hurry, rush”), Low German spoden, spöden ‎(“to hasten, speed”), German sputen, spuden ‎(“to speed”).

Verb

speed ‎(third-person singular simple present speeds, present participle speeding, simple past and past participle (mostly US) sped or (mostly UK) speeded)

  1. (intransitive, archaic) To succeed; to prosper, be lucky.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter 1, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:
      And yf I maye fynde suche a knyghte that hath all these vertues / he may drawe oute this swerd oute of the shethe / for I haue ben at kyng Ryons / it was told me ther were passyng good knyghtes / and he and alle his knyghtes haue assayed it and none can spede
    • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, I.2.4.vii:
      Aristotle must find out the motion of Euripus; Pliny must needs see Vesuvius; but how sped they? One loseth goods, another his life.
    • 18thc., Oliver Goldsmith, Introductory to Switzerland
      At night returning, every labor sped, / He sits him down the monarch of a shed: / Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys, / His children’s looks, that brighten at the blaze;
  2. (transitive, archaic) To help someone, to give them fortune; to aid or favour.
    God speed, until we meet again.‎
  3. (intransitive) To go fast.
    The Ferrari was speeding along the road.‎
    • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
      I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 10, in The China Governess:
      With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.
  4. (intransitive) To exceed the speed limit.
    Why do you speed when the road is so icy?‎
  5. (transitive) To increase the rate at which something occurs.
    • 1982, Carole Offir & Carole Wade, Human sexuality, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, p.454:
      It is possible that the uterine contractions speed the sperm along.
    • 2004, James M. Cypher & James L. Dietz, The process of economic development, Routledge, p.359:
      Such interventions can help to speed the process of reducing CBRs and help countries pass through the demographic transition threshold more quickly […].
  6. (intransitive, slang) To be under the influence of stimulant drugs, especially amphetamines.
  7. (obsolete) To be expedient.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Wyclif Bible (2 Corinthians xii. 1.) to this entry?)
  8. (archaic) To hurry to destruction; to put an end to; to ruin.
    • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
      sped with spavins
    • Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
      A dire dilemma! either way I'm sped. / If foes, they write, if friends, they read, me dead.
  9. (archaic) To wish success or good fortune to, in any undertaking, especially in setting out upon a journey.
    • Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
      Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.
  10. To cause to make haste; to dispatch with celerity; to drive at full speed; hence, to hasten; to hurry.
    • Edward Fairfax (c.1580-1635)
      He sped him thence home to his habitation.
  11. To hasten to a conclusion; to expedite.
    • John Ayliffe (1676-1732)
      Judicial acts […] are sped in open court at the instance of one or both of the parties.
Quotations
  • For usage examples of this term, see Citations:speed.
Usage notes
  • The Cambridge Guide to English Usage indicates that sped is for objects in motion (the race car sped) while speeded is used for activities or processes, but notes that the British English convention does not hold in American English.
  • Garner's Modern American Usage (2009) indicates that speeded is incorrect, except in the phrasal verb, speed up. Most American usage of speeded conforms to this.
  • Sped is about six times more common in American English (COCA) than speeded. Sped is twice as common in UK English (BNC).
Derived terms
Translations

Anagrams

French

Noun

speed m ‎(plural speeds)

  1. speed (amphetamine)

Etymology

Middle English sped ‎(“good fortune”).

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