haste

American  

[heyst] / heɪst /

noun

1. swiftness of motion; speed; celerity.

   He performed his task with great haste. They felt the need for haste.

   Antonyms:

   sloth

2. urgent need of quick action; a hurry or rush.

   to be in haste to get ahead in the world.

   Synonyms:

   urgency, ado, bustle, flurry

3. unnecessarily quick action; thoughtless, rash, or undue speed.

   Haste makes waste.

   Synonyms:

   precipitation, precipitancy

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verb (used with or without object)

hasted, hasting

1. Archaic. to hasten.

idioms

1. make haste, to act or go with speed; hurry.

   She made haste to tell the president the good news.

haste British  

/ heɪst /

noun

1. speed, esp in an action; swiftness; rapidity

2. the act of hurrying in a careless or rash manner

3. a necessity for hurrying; urgency

4. to hurry; rush

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verb

1. a poetic word for hasten

haste More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing haste

• make haste

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Usage

What does haste mean? Haste most commonly refers to urgency, such as in completing a task. It can also be used as another word for speed or swiftness, as in We have to move with haste if we want to make it on time. The phrase make haste means to move quickly, hurry up, or rush. Often, haste means urgency or speed that is careless or reckless. This is how the word is used in the expression haste makes waste, which means that rushing things leads to mistakes. The adjective form hasty is most often used in this sense—a hasty decision is one that is thought to have been made too quickly, perhaps leading to negative consequences. The adverb form is hastily. The verb hasten means to go faster or cause to go faster, as in We need to hasten our efforts. Example: In my haste to finish the project, I forgot to put my name on it.

Related Words

See speed.

Other Word Forms

• hasteful
  adjective
• hastefully
  adverb
• hasteless
  adjective
• hastelessness
  noun
• unhasted
  adjective
• unhasting
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of haste

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French from Germanic; akin to Old Frisian hāste, Old English hæst “violence,” Old Norse heifst “hatred,” Gothic haifsts “quarrel”

Explanation

When something is done in haste, it's done fast, and often with carelessness. In his haste to finish the paper, he didn't notice he had replaced "taste" with "waste" during spell-checking, so his title became "Foods of Our Home State: What a Waste!" The old saying goes "haste makes waste," and when you try to do things too quickly, sometimes you do them wrong or have to do them all over again. You can use the noun haste for things done with extraordinary speed and often in a situation where there's pressure to perform or complete a task. "In her haste to catch the train she ran six blocks, but when she boarded, she noticed she was wearing one blue tennis shoe and one red one."

Example Sentences

But he argued that the transition was launched in haste, pointing to a shortage of teachers, as well as teaching guides and materials.

From Barron's • Feb. 6, 2026

Turns out, Thollander was right: This experience had nothing to do with haste.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 5, 2026

If I were unlucky enough to do so, I’d instantly lose my appetite, spitting out those pungent, peppery seeds with such haste and chugging glasses of water in an attempt to clean my palate.

From Salon • Jan. 25, 2026

Once at the warehouse, dozens of volunteers began the slow process of hanging them up on metal fences that had also been sourced in haste.

From BBC • Jan. 21, 2026

“Well? Well? Make haste, I’m tired. I want my mat.”

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Related Words

• alacrity
• urgency