F'AST, a.

1. Literally, set, stopped, fixed, or pressed close. Hence, close; tight; as, make fast the door; take fast hold.
2. Firm; Immovable. Who, by his strength, setteth fast the mountains. Ps. lxv.
3. Close; strong. Robbers and outlaws – lurking in woods and fast places. Spenser.
4. Firmly fixed; closely adhering; as, to stick fast in mire; to make fast a rope.
5. Close, as sleep; deep; sound; as, a fast sleep. Shak.
6. Firm in adherence; as, a fast friend. Fast and loose, variable; inconstant; as, to play fast and loose.

Swift; moving rapidly; quick in motion; as, a fast horse.

Firmly; immovably, We will bind thee fast and deliver thee into their hand. Judges xv. Fast by, or fast beside, close or near to. Fast by the throne obsequious fame resides. Pope.

Swiftly; rapidly; with quick steps or progression; as, to run fast; to move fast through the water, as a ship; the work goes on fast.

1. Abstinence from food; properly a total abstinence, but it is used also for an abstinence from particular kinds of food, for a certain time. Happy were our forefathers, who broke their feats with herbs. Taylor.
2. Voluntary abstinence from food, as a religious mortification or humiliation; either total or partial abstinence from customary food, with a view to mortify the appetites, or to express grief and affliction on account of some calamity, or to deprecate an expected evil.
3. The time of fasting, whether a day, week or longer time. An annual fast is kept in New England, usually one day in the spring. The fast was now already pest. Acts xxvii.

That which fastens or holds.

1. To abstain from food, beyond the usual time; to omit to take the usual meals, for a time; as, to fast a day or a week.
2. To abstain from food voluntarily, for the mortification of the body or appetites, or as a token of grief, sorrow and affliction. Thou didst fast and weep for the child. 2 Sam. xii. When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance. Matth. vi.
3. To abstain from food partially, or from particular kinds of food; as, the Romanists fast in Lent.

1. To abstain from food] to omit to take nourishment in whole or in part; to go hungry.
   
   

   Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked. Milton.

2. Abstinence from food; omission to take nourishment.
   
   

   Surfeit is the father of much fast. Shak.

3. Firmly fixed; closely adhering; made firm; not loose, unstable, or easily moved; immovable; as, to make fast the door.
   
   

   There is an order that keeps things fast. Burke.

4. In a fast, fixed, or firmly established manner; fixedly; firmly; immovably.
   
   

   We will bind thee fast. Judg. xv. 13.

5. That which fastens or holds; especially, (Naut.) a mooring rope, hawser, or chain; - - called, according to its position, a bow, head, quarter, breast, or stern fast; also, a post on a pier around which hawsers are passed in mooring.
6. In such a condition, as to resilience, etc., as to make possible unusual rapidity of play or action; as, a fast racket, or tennis court; a fast track; a fast billiard table, etc.
7. To practice abstinence as a religious exercise or duty; to abstain from food voluntarily for a time, for the mortification of the body or appetites, or as a token of grief, or humiliation and penitence.
   
   

   Thou didst fast and weep for the child. 2 Sam. xii. 21.

   Fasting day, a fast day; a day of fasting.

8. Voluntary abstinence from food, for a space of time, as a spiritual discipline, or as a token of religious humiliation.
9. Firm against attack; fortified by nature or art; impregnable; strong.
   
   

   Outlaws . . . lurking in woods and fast places. Spenser.

10. In a fast or rapid manner; quickly; swiftly; extravagantly; wildly; as, to run fast; to live fast.
    
    

    Fast by, or Fast beside, close or near to; near at hand.

    He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk
    Into the wood fast by. Milton.

    Fast by the throne obsequious Fame resides. Pope.

11. A time of fasting, whether a day, week, or longer time; a period of abstinence from food or certain kinds of food; as, an annual fast.
    
    

    Fast day, a day appointed for fasting, humiliation, and religious offices as a means of invoking the favor of God. -- To break one's fast, to put an end to a period of abstinence by taking food; especially, to take one's morning meal; to breakfast. Shak.

12. Firm in adherence; steadfast; not easily separated or alienated; faithful; as, a fast friend.
13. Permanent; not liable to fade by exposure to air or by washing; durable; lasting; as, fast colors.
14. Tenacious; retentive.
    
    
    [Obs.]

    Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of their smells. Bacon.

15. Not easily disturbed or broken; deep; sound.
    
    

    All this while in a most fast sleep. Shak.

16. Moving rapidly; quick in mition; rapid; swift; as, a fast horse.
17. Given to pleasure seeking; disregardful of restraint; reckless; wild; dissipated; dissolute; as, a fast man; a fast liver.
    
    
    Thackeray.

    Fast and loose, now cohering, now disjoined; inconstant, esp. in the phrases to play at fast and loose, to play fast and loose, to act with giddy or reckless inconstancy or in a tricky manner; to say one thing and do another. "Play fast and loose with faith." Shak. - - Fast and loose pulleys (Mach.), two pulleys placed side by side on a revolving shaft, which is driven from another shaft by a band, and arranged to disengage and reëngage the machinery driven thereby. When the machinery is to be stopped, the band is transferred from the pulley fixed to the shaft to the pulley which revolves freely upon it, and vice versa. -- Hard and fast (Naut.), so completely aground as to be immovable. -- To make fast (Naut.), to make secure; to fasten firmly, as a vessel, a rope, or a door.