hastily
Americanadverb
-
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.
-
without sufficient care or attention.
This book feels far less potent, and far more hastily written, than the earlier work.
-
unnecessarily quickly or rashly; impetuously.
Six months earlier, she had hastily married a former high school classmate.
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
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.
Vocabulary lists containing hastily
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber
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Mr. Popper’s Penguins
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Prisoner B-3087
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Think a disinterred Ross Perot, hastily dusted off.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
The residents of a small hamlet nearby, Whelford, were hastily evacuated by police and put up in nearby hotels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
At a hastily arranged news conference in the Senedd, Cooper-Lesadd said her switch to Plaid followed "a period of reflection and deliberation" and that she had found "the right political home".
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
That’s when one was hastily put together, popping up with little to no detail about what it is or how it operates.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2026
She and Dorothea hastily preserved caterpillars and reptiles in brandy and packed up live cocoons and lizard eggs in the hope these might hatch during the months at sea.
From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
