8. Given to pleasure seeking; disregardful of restraint; reckless;
wild; dissipated; dissolute; as, a fast man; a fast liver. Thackeray.
Fast and loose, now cohering, now disjoined; inconstant, esp. in the
phrases to play at fast and loose, to play fast and loose, to act with
giddy or reckless inconstancy or in a tricky manner; to say one thing
and do another. "Play fast and loose with faith." Shak. - - Fast and
loose pulleys (Mach.), two pulleys placed side by side on a revolving
shaft, which is driven from another shaft by a band, and arranged to
disengage and reÎngage the machinery driven thereby. When the machinery
is to be stopped, the band is transferred from the pulley fixed to the
shaft to the pulley which revolves freely upon it, and vice versa. --
Hard and fast (Naut.), so completely aground as to be immovable. -- To
make fast (Naut.), to make secure; to fasten firmly, as a vessel, a
rope, or a door.
<! p. 545 !>
Fast (?), adv. [OE. faste firmly, strongly, quickly, AS. fÊste. See
Fast, a.] 1. In a fast, fixed, or firmly established manner; fixedly;
firmly; immovably.
We will bind thee fast.
Judg. xv. 13.
2. In a fast or rapid manner; quickly; swiftly; extravagantly; wildly;
as, to run fast; to live fast.
Fast by, or Fast beside, close or near to; near at hand.
He, after Eve seduced, unminded slunk Into the wood fast by.
Milton.
Fast by the throne obsequious Fame resides.
Pope.
Fast, n. That which fastens or holds; especially, (Naut.) a mooring
rope, hawser, or chain; - - called, according to its position, a bow,
head, quarter, breast, or stern fast; also, a post on a pier around
which hawsers are passed in mooring.
Fas"ten (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fastened (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Fastening (?).] [AS. fÊstnian; akin to OHG. festinn. See Fast, a.] 1.
To fix firmly; to make fast; to secure, as by a knot, lock, bolt, etc.;
as, to fasten a chain to the feet; to fasten a door or window.
2. To cause to hold together or to something else; to attach or unite
firmly; to cause to cleave to something , or to cleave together, by any
means; as, to fasten boards together with nails or cords; to fasten
anything in our thoughts.
The words Whig and Tory have been pressed to the service of many
successions of parties, with very different ideas fastened to them.
Swift.
3. To cause to take close effect; to make to tell; to lay on; as, to
fasten a blow. [Obs.] Dryden.
If I can fasten but one cup upon him.
Shak.
To fasten a charge, or a crime, upon, to make his guilt certain, or so
probable as to be generally believed. -- To fasten one's eyes upon, to
look upon steadily without cessation. Acts iii. 4.
Syn. -- To fix; cement; stick; link; affix; annex.
Fas"ten, v. i. To fix one's self; to take firm hold; to clinch; to
cling.
A horse leech will hardly fasten on a fish.
Sir T. Browne.
Fas"ten*er (?), n. One who, or that which, makes fast or firm.
Fas"ten*ing (?), n. Anything that binds and makes fast, as a lock,
catch, bolt, bar, buckle, etc.
Fast"er (?), n. One who abstains from food.
Fast"-hand`ed (?), a. Close- handed; close-fisted; covetous;
avaricious. [Obs.] Bacon.
||Fas"ti (?), n. pl. [L.] 1. The Roman calendar, which gave the days
||for festivals, courts, etc., corresponding to a modern almanac.