quickly
Americanadverb
Commonly Confused
See quick.
Etymology
Origin of quickly
Explanation
When you do something quickly, you do it really fast — like when you quickly eat breakfast so you won’t be late to school. The adverb quickly can describe any action that’s done at great speed. If you see a wolf running quickly, that means it’s moving rapidly and you’d better hide quickly. Quickly can also carry the sense of doing something without delay or hesitation. Sometimes quickly has a connotation of not putting much thought or effort into something, like when you quickly do your math homework.
Vocabulary lists containing quickly
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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.
Because these worms develop disease-related damage quickly, they provide a useful way to study toxicity.
From Science Daily • Jun. 19, 2026
Reopening of the waterway has begun under a U.S.-Iran agreement signed earlier this week, shifting the market’s focus to how quickly the export system can recover.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 19, 2026
Historical analysis from market-research service SentimenTrader shows that when coffee has surged this quickly after recently hitting a major low, returns have often been poor over the next two to six months.
From Barron's • Jun. 18, 2026
If temperatures dropped quickly below minus 20C, or sometimes minus 30C, the water in the pipes was liable to freeze, cracking the pipes and ruining the whole system.
From BBC • Jun. 18, 2026
Hopefully, her family tree will wow the class so much that if I slip in quickly after her, no one will notice how pathetic my findings are!
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
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.
