make haste
Also, make it snappy. Hurry up, move or act quickly, as in If you don't make haste we'll be late, or Make it snappy, kids. The first expression was first recorded in Miles Coverdale's 1535 translation of the Bible (Psalms 39:13): “Make haste, O Lord, to help me.” The variant dates from the early 1900s and uses snappy in the sense of “resembling a sudden jerk.” The oxymoron make haste slowly, dating from the mid-1700s, is a translation of the Latin festina lente. It is used either ironically, to slow someone down (as in You'll do better if you make haste slowly), or to comment sarcastically on a lack of progress (as in So far the committee has been making haste slowly).
Words Nearby make haste
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
How to use make haste in a sentence
So make haste this week to tie up loose ends, especially the busy work of returning calls and emails.
make haste, Mr. Lowten,” Perker called out, “we shall have the panels beaten in.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, v. 2(of 2) | Charles DickensThen make haste, for I shall give orders to start within five minutes.
The Border Rifles | Gustave AimardAnd the gruff voice of the drayman, growing impatient in the antechamber: "Come, come, make haste."
The Nabob | Alphonse DaudetOh miss, make haste and let me do your hair, and put it on you!'
Sarah's School Friend | May Baldwin
But the barest prudence told him that he should make haste for the open.
The Watchers of the Trails | Charles G. D. Roberts
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