quick – English adjective declension

Adjective: quick

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparative	quicker
Superlative	quickest

Perifrastic

Comparative	more quick
Superlative	most quick

Sample Sentences

I ran to the station – but I wasn't quick enough.
He's a quick runner.
The quickest and nimblest were probably the oxycones, throwing themselves through the water like discuses. [2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 87:]
That was a quick meal.
Veronica Ripley, 32, often speaks to friends about the role that video games played in her trans awakening: “I would try to explain it away, saying that I was playing the girl character because she had a smaller hitbox or quicker kill animations,” she said, referring to in-game advantages. [2023 December 27, Zachary Small, “Video Games Let Them Choose a Role. Their Transgender Identities Flourished.”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2024:]
The importance of Nowruz is reflected in an elaborate sabzi polo, the herbed rice capped with a crunchy tahdig, the crust formed from lettuce, rice mixed with yogurt or lavash or another thin flatbread. On Wednesday night, I opted for sheveed polo, a simpler and quicker dill rice, but I can’t wait to nail that crunchy tahdig tonight. [2026 March 15, Genevieve Ko, “‘This Is the Best Dish I Have Ever Made From NYT Cooking’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2026:]
You have to be very quick to be able to compete in ad-lib theatrics.
My father is old but he still has a quick wit.
She has a very quick temper.
He is wont to be rather quick of temper when tired.
The bishop was somewhat quick with them, and signified that he was much offended. [1549, Hugh Latimer, The Sixth Sermon Preached Before King Edward, April 6 1549:]
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Ieſus Chriſt, who ſhall iudge the quicke and the dead at his appearing, and his kingdome: [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Timothy 4:1, column 2:]
Man is no star, but a quick coal / Of mortal fire. [1633, George Herbert, The Temple:]
The inmost oratory of my soul,
Wherein thou ever dwellest quick or dead,
Is black with grief eternal for thy sake. [1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night, section X:]
Whoever does any act under such circumstances that if he thereby caused death he would be guilty of culpable homicide, and does by such act cause the death of a quick unborn child, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine. [Section 316, Penal Code (Cap. 224, 2008 Ed.) (Singapore)]
she's quick; the child brags in her belly already: tis yours [c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:]
Invention sleeps within a skull
No longer quick with light,
The hive that hummed in every cell
Is now sealed honey-tight. [1941, Theodore Roethke, “Death Piece”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC, page 4:]
When sentenced she sought to avoid hanging by declaring herself with child – ironically, given her favourite deception – but a ‘jury of Matrons’ found her not quick. [2012, Jerry White, London in the Eighteenth Century, Bodley Head, published 2017, page 385:]
And it seemed to me that the dream smote the roof above my bed, and the roof opened and disclosed the outer dark, and in the dark travelled a bearded star, and the night was quick with fiery signs. [1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 18:]
[…] the ayre is quicke there, / And it perces and ſharpens the ſtomacke, [c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:]
Note that quick clay is a subet of brittle material; all quick clay is brittle, but not all brittle clay is quick.) Glaciomarine clay turns into quick clay after extensive pore water leaching by ground- and rainwater. [2022, Anna Bondo Medhus, Lone Klinkby, Engineering Geophysics, page 227:]

Adjectives inflected like quick

wholsom, seldom, scared, solemn, silent, beloved, uptight, perfect, useless, up-tight, selfish, distinct, discreet, Dutch, reckless, bumfuck, worthless, slender, faithfull, shallow, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

1. From Middle English quik, quic (“living, alive, active”), from Old English cwic (“alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwiku (“alive, lively quick”), from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz (“alive, lively, quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós (“alive”), from *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”), *gʷeyh₃w- (“to live”). For semantic development, compare lively.
2. Cognate with Dutch kwik, kwiek (“lively, quick”), German keck (“sassy, cheeky”), Danish kvik (“lively, quick-witted, quick”), kvæg (“cattle”), Faroese kvikur (“quick”), Icelandic kvikur (“lively, quick”), Norn kvikk, hwikk (“living, swarming, teeming”), Norwegian kvikk (“quick, lively, quick-witted”), Swedish kvick (“quick, witty”), and also (from Indo-European) with Greek βίος (víos, “life”), Latin vivus (“alive”), Lithuanian gývas (“alive”), Latvian dzīvs (“alive”), Russian живо́й (živój, “alive, lively, quick”), Polish żywy (“alive”), Welsh byw (“alive”), Irish beo (“alive”), biathaigh (“to feed”), Northern Kurdish jîn (“to live”), jiyan (“life”), giyan (“soul”), can (“soul”), Sanskrit जीव (jīva, “alive”), Albanian nxit (“to urge, stimulate”). Doublet of jiva. See: Dutch Adjectives 'kwik', German Adjectives 'keck', Swedish Adjectives 'kvick', Latin Adjectives 'vivus', Polish Adjectives 'żywy', Irish Adjectives 'beo'.

Verbs referencing "quick"

German Adjectives keck, Swedish Adjectives kvick, Dutch Adjectives kwik.