Emily Dickinson Lexicon

QUICK, a. [Sax. cwic, living, alive; D. kwik; G. quick; Dan. qvik; Sw. qvick. Qu. W. cig, Arm. qicq, flesh. If q is a dialectical prefix, as I suppose, this word coincides with the L. vigeo, vegeo, and vig, veg, radical, coincide with wag. Now the Dutch call a wagtail, kwikstaart.]

1. Primarily, alive; living; opposed to dead or unanimated; as, quick flesh. – Lev. xiii. The Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead. – 2 Tim. iv. [In this sense, the word is obsolete, except in some compounds or in particular phrases.]
2. Swift; hasty; done with celerity; as quick dispatch.
3. Speedy; done or occurring in a short time; as, a quick return of profits. Oft he to her his charge of quick return / Repeated. – Milton.
4. Active; brisk; nimble; prompt; ready. He is remarkably quick in his motions. He is a man of quick parts.
5. Moving with rapidity or celerity; as, quick time in music. Quick with child, pregnant with a living child. – Blackstone.

QUICK, adv.

1. Nimbly; with celerity; rapidly; with haste; speedily; without delay; as, run quick; be quick. If we consider how very quick the actions of the mind are performed. – Locke.
2. Soon; in a short time; without delay. Go and return quick.

QUICK, n. [Sw. qviga, a heifer; Dan. qvæg, cattle; that is, living.]

1. A living animal. [Obs.] – Spenser.
2. The living flesh; sensible parts; as, penetrating to the quick; stung to the quick; cut to the quick. – Bacon. Dryden.
3. Living shrubs or trees; as, a ditch or bank set with quick. – Mortimer.

QUICK, v.i.

To become alive. [Obs.] – Chaucer.

QUICK, v.i. [Sax. cwic, alive; cwiccian, to vivify.]

To stir; to move. [Not in use.] Spenser.

QUICK, v.t. [Sax. cwiccian.]

To revive; to make alive. [Obs.] – Chaucer.

QUICK'-BEAM, or QUICK'EN-TREE, n.

A tree, the wild sorb. The Pyrus or Sorbus aucuparia, a species of service tree, sometimes also called roan-tree, and fowl-pear, because the apples are used as a bait for birds.

QUICK'EN, v.i. [quik'n.]

1. To become alive. The heart is the first part that quickens, and the last that dies. – Ray.
2. To move with rapidity or activity. And keener lightning quickens in her eye. – Pope.

QUICK'EN, v.t. [quik'n; Sax. cwiccian; Dan. qvæger.]

1. Primarily, to make alive; to vivify; to revive or resuscitate, as from death or an inanimate state. – Rom. iv. Hence flocks and herds, and men and beasts and fowls, / With breath are quicken'd, and attract their souls. – Dryden.
2. To make alive in a spiritual sense; to communicate a principle of grace to. You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Eph. ii.
3. To hasten; to accelerate; as, to quicken motion, speed or flight.
4. To sharpen; to given keener perception to; to stimulate; to incite; as, to quicken the appetite or taste; to quicken desires. – South. Tatler.
5. To revive; to cheer; to reinvigorate; to refresh by new supplies of comfort or grace. – Ps. cxix.

QUICK'EN-ED, pp.

1. Made alive; revived; vivified; reinvigorated.
2. Accelerated; hastened.
3. Stimulated; incited.

QUICK'EN-ER, n.

1. One who revives, vivifies or communicates life.
2. That which reinvigorates.
3. That which accelerates motion or increases activity. – More.

QUICK'EN-ING, a.

Giving new life and vigor; animating; as, the quickening influences of the spirit.

QUICK'EN-ING, ppr.

Giving life; accelerating; inciting.

QUICK'-EY-ED, a.

Having acute sight; of keen and ready perception.

QUICK'-GRASS, n. [See QUITCH-GRASS.]

QUICK'LIME, n. [See Lime.]

The protoxyd of calcium. Any carbonate of lime deprived of its carbonic acid, becomes quicklime; as, chalk, limestone, oyster shells, &c. These calcarious stones and shells are reduced to quicklime by being subjected for a considerable time to intense heat, which expels the carbonic acid, the aqueous, and the animal matter.

QUICK'LY, adv.

1. Speedily; with haste or celerity.
2. Soon; without delay.

QUICK'-MATCH, n. [See Match.]

A combustible preparation formed of cotton strands dipped in a boiling composition of white vinegar, saltpeter and mealed gunpowder, used by artillerymen. – Encyc.

QUICK'NESS, n.

1. Speed; velocity; celerity; rapidity; as, the quickness of motion.
2. Activity; briskness; promptness; as, the quickness of the imagination or wit. – Wotton. Dryden.
3. Acuteness of perception; keen sensibility; as, quickness of sensation. – Locke.
4. Sharpness; pungency. – Mortimer.

QUICK'SAND, n.

1. Send easily moved or readily yielding to pressure; loose sand abounding with water. – Dryden.
2. Unsolid ground. – Addison.

QUICK'SCENT-ED, a.

Having an acute perception by the nose; of an acute smell.

QUICK'SET, n.

A living plant set to grow, particularly for a hedge. – Evelyn.

QUICK'SET, v.t.

To plant with living shrubs or trees for a hedge or fence; as, to quickset a ditch. – Mortimer.

QUICK'SET-ED, pp.

Planted with living shrubs.

QUICK-SIGHT'ED, a.

Having quick sight or acute discernment; quick to see or discern. – Locke. Bentley.