haste

Meanings

1. 1noununcountable

   Great speed or hurry in acting, often with too little thought or care.

   Grammar: Never takes an or an: she left in haste.

   Patterns

   • in haste
   • with haste
   • make haste

   In his haste, he forgot his keys on the kitchen counter.

   She packed with such haste that she left her passport behind.

   The decision was made in haste and soon regretted.

2. 2noununcountableold-fashioned

   A feeling or need to hurry because time is short.

   Grammar: Often appears in the fixed phrase make haste, meaning to hurry up.

   Patterns

   • make haste
   • there is no haste

   We must make haste if we want to catch the last ferry.

   There was no haste, so they strolled to the station.

   The captain urged his crew to make haste.

Common combinations

in haste

Marry in haste, repent at leisure, the old saying goes.

make haste

Make haste, or we will miss the curtain.

with great haste

The crew loaded the truck with great haste.

act in haste

Don't act in haste when signing a contract.

leave in haste

They left in haste when the storm warning came.

haste makes waste

My teacher kept reminding us that haste makes waste.

Synonyms and how they differ

hurry

Hurry is the everyday word, while haste sounds more literary and often hints at carelessness.

speed

Speed is neutral and measurable, whereas haste suggests rushing under pressure.

rush

Rush is informal and often describes a busy period, while haste focuses on the manner of acting quickly.

urgency

Urgency stresses how pressing the need is, not the quick way of doing something.

Opposites

Word family

hasty adjective

done too quickly without thinking

hastily adverb

in a hurried, careless way

hasten verb

to make something happen sooner, or to hurry

hastiness noun

the quality of acting too quickly

Commonly confused: haste or waste?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “haste”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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