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SWIFTNESS
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A rate (usually rapid) at which something happens
Example:
the project advanced with gratifying speed
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("swiftness" is a kind of...):
pace; rate (the relative speed of progress or change)
Attribute:
fast (acting or moving or capable of acting or moving quickly)
slow (not moving quickly; taking a comparatively long time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "swiftness"):
haste; hastiness; hurriedness; hurry; precipitation (overly eager speed (and possible carelessness))
execution speed ((computer science) the speed with which a computational device can execute instructions; measured in MIPS)
graduality; gradualness (the quality of being gradual or of coming about by gradual stages)
Derivation:
swift (moving very fast)
Context examples:
In a few moments I saw him in his boat, which shot across the waters with an arrowy swiftness and was soon lost amidst the waves.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
I could see a black fin cutting the water and making for him with greater swiftness than he was being pulled aboard.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
They were not prepared for his swiftness and directness, for his attack without warning.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
The long thong cracked between the ears of the leader, the groom sprang for the pavement, and Jermyn Street had changed for St. James’s, and that again for Whitehall with a swiftness which showed that the gallant mares were as impatient as their master.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I owned that the Houyhnhnms among us, whom we called horses, were the most generous and comely animals we had; that they excelled in strength and swiftness; and when they belonged to persons of quality, were employed in travelling, racing, or drawing chariots; they were treated with much kindness and care, till they fell into diseases, or became foundered in the feet; but then they were sold, and used to all kind of drudgery till they died; after which their skins were stripped, and sold for what they were worth, and their bodies left to be devoured by dogs and birds of prey.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I rushed towards the window, and drawing a pistol from my bosom, fired; but he eluded me, leaped from his station, and running with the swiftness of lightning, plunged into the lake.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
He dived out of the galley door, or glided rather, with a swiftness and smoothness of gait that struck me as being not so much cat-like as oily.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The sight of him was sufficient to start them rushing after him, at which times his swiftness usually carried him into safety.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
I heard several bangs or buffets, as I thought given to the eagle (for such I am certain it must have been that held the ring of my box in his beak), and then, all on a sudden, felt myself falling perpendicularly down, for above a minute, but with such incredible swiftness, that I almost lost my breath.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I was like a wild beast that had broken the toils, destroying the objects that obstructed me and ranging through the wood with a stag-like swiftness.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
