hastily

American  

[heyst-l-ee] / ˈheɪst l i /

adverb

1. with haste; rapidly; speedily.

   Late one snowy night in Maryland, moving crews hastily loaded a line of vans and, under cover of darkness, departed the city.

2. without sufficient care or attention.

   This book feels far less potent, and far more hastily written, than the earlier work.

3. unnecessarily quickly or rashly; impetuously.

   Six months earlier, she had hastily married a former high school classmate.

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Usage

What does hastily mean? Hastily means rashly or too quickly and often carelessly. The related adjective hasty most commonly means too fast and often careless. The noun haste most commonly refers to urgency, such as in completing a task. Haste can also be used as another word for speed or swiftness. But haste also commonly 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. This is how hasty and hastily are most commonly used. Doing things hastily is thought to lead to mistakes. Making a decision hastily is making it too quickly, often leading to negative consequences. Hastily can also mean speedily, as in We packed up hastily and left as quickly as we could. Example: Don’t make big decisions hastily—you should always take some time to think about them.

Other Word Forms

• unhastily
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of hastily

First recorded in 1275–1325; hasty ( def. ) + -ly

Explanation

When you do something hastily you rush through it in a hurried manner. If you write an essay hastily, don't expect an A. Haste is speed, so if you do something hastily, you're just doing it too fast. When a job should take time, like building a house, but it's done hastily, something often goes wrong. If you hastily leave the dinner table without explaining yourself, people will think you're rude.

Example Sentences

“We need the ballroom,” he told reporters at a hastily organized press conference following the canceled dinner.

From Slate • Apr. 28, 2026

A hastily prepared hotel conference room in Los Mochis was used for the ceremony.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 26, 2026

Trump said at a hastily arranged late-night news conference at the White House that he first thought the noise was a tray being dropped, before realizing it was gunfire.

From Barron's • Apr. 26, 2026

Rich Maw, an independent member of North Yorkshire Council and Scarborough Town Council, said he believed it had been "done too hastily", calling it "a sledgehammer to crack a nut".

From BBC • Mar. 27, 2026

Mr. Smiley, startled to see the kids, hastily stuffed an empty cellophane cookie bag behind the couch cushion before flashing them a guilty smile.

From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser

Related Words

• carelessly
• hurriedly
• nimbly
• prematurely
• promptly
• quickly
• speedily
• suddenly
• swiftly