Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

posthaste

[pohst-heyst]
See more synonyms for posthaste on Thesaurus.com
adverb
  1. with the greatest possible speed or promptness: to come to a friend's aid posthaste.
Show More
noun
  1. Archaic. great haste.
Show More

Origin of posthaste

First recorded in 1530–40; post3 + haste
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

rapidenergeticcursoryhastyagilebriskbriefimmediateinstantaneousnimblesuddenabrupthurriedactiveexpeditiouskeenswifthotquickrapidly

Examples from the Web for post-haste

Historical Examples

  • As it may therefore be of importance, I dispatch it with my own, by my servant, post-haste.

    Clarissa, Volume 3 (of 9)

    Samuel Richardson

  • Of course we knew at once what it meant, and he set off post-haste.

  • He knew that this would start us post-haste for our apartment, which it did.

    The Van Dwellers

    Albert Bigelow Paine

  • One deadly sickness he had at Kenilworth, when my father was ridden for post-haste.

    The Caged Lion

    Charlotte M. Yonge

  • A horseman was sent forward, post-haste, to intimate to us that they were on their way.

British Dictionary definitions for post-haste

posthaste

adverb
  1. with great haste; as fast as possible
Show More
noun
  1. archaic great haste
Show More
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for post-haste

posthaste

adv.

1590s, from a noun (1530s) meaning "great speed," usually said to be from "post haste" instruction formerly written on letters (attested from 1530s), from post (adv.) + haste (n.). The verb post "to ride or travel with great speed" is recorded from 1550s.

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
post-haste in Culture

posthaste

[(pohst-hayst)]

Immediately, with great speed: “Get the flood warning to the media posthaste.”

Show More
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.