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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

3 entries under this word

Speed

Speed, v. i.

verbintransitive

[imp. & p. p. SPED, SPEEDED; p. pr. & vb. n. SPEEDING.] [A-S. spēdan, from spōwan, O. H. Ger. spuōan, spuōdan, spuōn, to succeed, A-S. spēd, O. H. Ger. spuōt, prosperity, haste; I. Ger. spōden, spoden, spuden, N. H. Ger. sputen, D. spoeden. Cf. Gr. σπεύδειν, to make haste.]

  1. To make haste; to move with celerity. Shak.
  2. To attain what one seeks for; to advance in one's enterprise; to prosper; to succeed.

He that's once denied will hardly speed. Shak. 3. To have any condition, good or ill; to fare. Ships heretofore in seas like fishes speed; The mightiest still upon the smallest fed. Waller.

Speed, v. t.

verbtransitive

Sense 1. To cause to make haste; to dispatch with celerity; to send forth as a messenger; hence, to hasten; to hurry.

He sped him thence home to his habitation. Fairfax.

Sense 2. To help forward; to assist onward; to aid; to cause to succeed. “With rising gales that sped their happy flight.” Dryden.

Sense 3. To hasten to a conclusion; to execute; to bring to a result.

Sense 4. To bring to destruction; to ruin; to kill.

A dire dilemma! either way I’m sped! If foes, they write, if friends, they read, me dead. Pope.

☞— In the phrase God speed, there is probably a mistake in considering it as equivalent to may God give you success. The true phrase is, probably, good speed; good, in Saxon, being written god. I bid you or wish you good speed, that is, good success.

Synonyms—To dispatch; hasten; accelerate; hurry.

Speed, n.

noun

n. [A-S. spēd, O. H. Ger. spuot. See supra.]

  1. The moving or causing to move forward with celerity; swiftness; quickness.
  2. Prosperity in an undertaking; favorable issue, that is, advance to the desired end; success.

O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day. Gen. xxiv. 12. 3. Start; advance. “The speed of this my book for a term or two.” Fuller. God speed. See supra. Syn.—Haste; swiftness; celerity; quickness; dispatch; expedition; hurry; acceleration. See HASTE.