1. The condition or quality of being quick or living; life. [Obs.]
Touch it with thy celestial quickness.
Herbert. 2. Activity; briskness; especially, rapidity of motion; speed; celerity; as, quickness of wit.
This deed . . . must send thee hence
With fiery quickness.
Shak.
His mind had, indeed, great quickness and vigor.
Macaulay. 3. Acuteness of perception; keen sensibility.
Would not quickness of sensation be an inconvenience to an animal that must lie still ?
Locke 4. Sharpness; pungency of taste. Mortimer.
Syn. — Velocity; celerity; rapidity; speed; haste; expedition; promptness; dispatch; swiftness; nimbleness; fleetness; agility; briskness; liveliness; readiness; sagacity; shrewdness; shrewdness; sharpness; keenness.
Quicksand
(Quick"sand`) n. Sand easily moved or readily yielding to pressure; especially, a deep mass
of loose or moving sand mixed with water, sometimes found at the mouth of a river or along some coasts,
and very dangerous, from the difficulty of extricating a person who begins sinking into it.
Life hath quicksands, — Life hath snares!
Longfellow.
Quick-scented
(Quick"-scent`ed) a. Acute of smell.
Quickset
(Quick"set`) n. A living plant set to grow, esp. when set for a hedge; specifically, the hawthorn.
Quickset
(Quick"set`), a. Made of quickset.
Dates and pomegranates on the quickset hedges.
Walpole. Quickset
(Quick"set`), v. t. To plant with living shrubs or trees for a hedge; as, to quickset a ditch. Mortimer.
Quick-sighted
(Quick"-sight`ed) a. Having quick sight or acute discernment; quick to see or to discern.
Locke.
—Quick"-sight`ed*ness, n.
Quicksilver
(Quick"sil`ver) n. [Quick living + silver; — so called from its fluidity; cf. G. quecksilber, L.
argentum vivum. See Quick, a.] (Chem.) The metal mercury; — so called from its resemblance to
liquid silver.
Quicksilver horizon, a mercurial artificial horizon. See under Horizon. — Quicksilver water, a
solution of mercury nitrate used in artificial silvering; quick water.
Quicksilvered
(Quick"sil`vered) a. Overlaid with quicksilver, or with an amalgam of quicksilver and tinfoil.
Quicksilvering
(Quick"sil`ver*ing) n. The mercury and foil on the back of a looking-glass.
Quickstep
(Quick"step`) n. (Mus.) A lively, spirited march; also, a lively style of dancing.
Quick-witted
(Quick"-wit`ted) a. Having ready wit Shak.
Quick-wittedness
(Quick"-wit`ted*ness), n. Readiness of wit. "Celtic quick-wittedness." M. Arnold.
