Fast

a. [compar. FASTER; superl. FASTEST.] [A-S. fäst, O. Sax. fast, Icel. fastr, Sw. & Dan. fast, D. vast, O. H. Ger. fasti, festi, M. H. Ger. veste, N. H. Ger. fest.]

1Sense 1. Firmly fixed; closely adhering; made firm; not loose, unstable, or easily moved; as, to make fast the door; to stick fast in the mud.

There is an order that keeps things fast. Burke.

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

Lurking in woods and fast places. Spenser.

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

4Sense 4. Not easily disturbed or broken; deep; sound. “A most fast sleep.” Shak.

5Sense 5. Moving rapidly; quick in motion; rapid; swift; as, a fast horse.

6Sense 6. Rash and inconsiderate; rushing on in ways of sin and folly; extravagant; dissipated; as, a fast man; a fast liver. [Recent.] Thackeray.

Fast and loose, now cohering, now disjoined; variable; inconstant, especially in the phrases to play at fast and loose, to play fast and loose, to act with giddy or reckless inconstancy. “Play fast and loose with faith.” Shak.

Fast and loose pulleys (Mach.), two pulleys placed side by side on a shaft which is driven from another shaft by a band. When the shaft is to be stopped, the band is transferred from the fixed pulley to the loose one, and vice versa.

n. That which fastens or holds; a rope which fastens a vessel to a wharf.

v. i. [imp. & p. p. FASTED; p. pr. & vb. n. FASTING.] [A-S. fāstan, O. Sax., Icel., & Sw. fasta, Dan. faste, O. H. Ger. fastēn, M. H. Ger. & D. vasten, N. H. Ger. fasten, Goth. fastan, to keep, to observe, to fast, allied to fast, firm.]

1Sense 1. To abstain from food; to omit to take nourishment in whole or in part; to go hungry.

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

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

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

n. [A-S. fästen, O. H. Ger. fasta, M. H. Ger. vaste, N. H. Ger. faste. See supra.]

1Sense 1. Abstinence from food; omission to take nourishment.

A surfeit is the father of much fast. Shak.

2Sense 2. Voluntary abstinence from food, as a religious mortification or humiliation, or to express grief and affliction on account of some calamity, or to deprecate an expected evil.

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

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.