rapid
Etymology

Borrowed from French rapide, from Latin rapidus.

Pronunciation
  • (RP, America, Canada) IPA: /ˈɹæpɪd/
Adjective

rapid

  1. Very swift or quick.
    a rapid stream
    rapid growth
    rapid improvement
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:
      Ascend my Chariot; guide the rapid Wheeles.
    • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC ↗:
      The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it. […] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?
  2. Steep, changing altitude quickly. (of a slope)
  3. Needing only a brief exposure time. (of a lens, plate, film, etc.)
  4. (England, dialectal) Violent, severe.
  5. (obsolete, dialectal) Happy.
Translations Adverb

rapid

  1. (archaic, colloquial) Rapidly.
Noun

rapid (plural rapids)

  1. (usually, in the plural) A rough section of a river or stream which is difficult to navigate due to the swift and turbulent motion of the water.
    Coordinate term: riffle
  2. (dated) A burst of rapid fire.
  3. (chess) Short for rapid chess.
Translations Related terms


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