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From French rapide, from Latin rapidus



rapid (comparative more rapid, superlative most rapid)

  1. Very swift or quick.
    a rapid stream;  rapid growth;  rapid improvement
    • John Milton (1608-1674)
      Ascend my chariot; guide the rapid wheels.
    • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, A Cuckoo in the Nest[1]:
      The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it. [] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?
    • 2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30: 
      Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."
  2. Steep, changing altitude quickly. (of a slope)
  3. Needing only a brief exposure time. (of a lens, plate, film, etc.)
  4. (England, dialectal) Violent, severe.
  5. (obsolete, dialectal) Happy.



rapid (comparative more rapid, superlative most rapid)

  1. (archaic or colloquial) Rapidly.


rapid (plural rapids)

  1. (often in the plural) a rough section of a river or stream which is difficult to navigate due to the swift and turbulent motion of the water.
  2. (dated) A burst of rapid fire.


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