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

Hastily dug trenches line one part of the camp.

From BBC • Jun. 6, 2024

Hastily made midnight snacks blurred by a shaky camera.

From Washington Post • Jun. 27, 2022

Hastily getting this over with so it can be forgotten in a month's time is a terrible mistake.

From Salon • Feb. 9, 2021

Hastily, he shoves his daughter’s medicine in a case and some croissants in a bag.

From The Guardian • Sep. 23, 2020

Hastily pulling out his wand, he pointed it at the rag and said, “Tergeo.”

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

Related Words

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