fastness
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From Middle English fastnes, fastnesse (“immovableness, stability; firmness, solidness; secure attachment; constancy; obstinacy; something giving firmness or strength; of sleep: soundness; of a wound: healing; assurance, confirmation”) [and other forms], from Old English fæstnes (“fastness, firmness, stability; resolution; tenacity; vigour; firmament; fortification”) [and other forms], from fæst (“firm, stable; constant”) (from Proto-Germanic *fastuz (“firm, fixed; secure”); see further at that entry) + -nes (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a quality or state). The English word may be analysed as fast + -ness.
Base: fast
Affixes: -ness
Inflected forms:
form: fastnesses
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: [T]he thing, as it is, having firſt taken vp her ſtand in the memory, and there by the way of knowledge and witting, imprinted it-ſelfe, it were hard it ſhould not repreſent it ſelfe to the imagination, diſplacing and ſupplanting falſehood, which therein can have no ſuch footing, or ſetled faſtneſſe: […]
[T]his is the ſure, infallible Teſt of Love, that the Meaſure of its Strength is to be taken by the Faſtneſs of its Hold.
gloss: The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
pos: noun
tags: countable
specifically
uncountable
examples: Although aniline dyes have replaced most natural dyes in the modern era, natural dyers still revere cochineal for its brilliance and fastness.
gloss: The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: [Frog:] Why are all of us fleein'? What dire peril threatens our sylvan fastness?
 [Bug:] Just run! Your fastness shouldn't be too slow.
gloss: The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
uncountable
examples: But now his cruelty ſo ſore ſhe drad, / That to thoſe fennes for faſtneſſe ſhe did fly, / And there her ſelfe did hyde from his hard tyranny.
The Foes had left the faſtneſs of their Place, / Prevail'd in Fight, and had his Men in Chace.
gloss: The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: Which was brought to paſſe I beleue, […] by a good way of Epitome, in binding him ſelfe to tranſlate meros Atticos Oratores, and ſo to bring his ſtyle, from all lowſe groſneſſe, to ſoch firme faſtnes in latin, as is in Demoſthenes in Greeke.
gloss: Something that is fast, or that causes someone or something to be fast (in various senses).
pos: noun
tags: also
countable
figuratively
uncountable
examples: [I]f the VVelſh compelled by famine ventred out of their ſtrengthes or faſtneſſes, in or about Snovvdon, the Garriſon Souldiers of Gannocke vvere ready to intercept and kill them; […]
[T]he ſlaves that yet remained in the faſtneſſes of Jamaica, attached to the Spaniſh, and hoſtile to the Engliſh ſettlers, continued to be troubleſome, and at times formidable.
The incubators are built in remote fastnesses, where there is little or no likelihood of their being discovered by other tribes.
When she came to know writers it was like adventuring upon a stage which till then she had known only from the other side of the footlights. She saw them dramatically, and really seemed herself to live a larger life because she entertained them and visited them in their fastnesses.
[…] though cut glass was nothing new in the nineties, it was then especially busy reflecting the dazzling light of fashion from the Back Bay to the fastnesses of the Middle West.
When we read Chaucer, we are floated up to him insensibly on the current of our ancestors' lives, […] But the Greeks remain in a fastness of their own.
On the morning of July 31, the mountain rose spangled in the summer sun 2,300 feet above Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli. Strapping on three oxygen tanks, the two men faced toward K2's last fastness.
Their mission in life was to tote bituminous coal out of the mountain fastness of West Virginia and move it west to the gateways of Deepwater, Columbus and Toledo and east to tidewater at Hampton Roads.
"I have many servants in my mountain fastness, and all the riches I could dream of."
gloss: Something that is fast, or that causes someone or something to be fast (in various senses).
pos: noun
tags: countable
regional
uncountable
Derived words: acid-fastness
colorfastness
colour fastness
colourfastness
Translations:
lang: Turkish
word: hızlılık
lang: Uyghur
word: تېزلىك
roman: tëzlik
lang: Uyghur
word: ئىلداملىق
roman: ildamliq
lang: Uyghur
word: چاپسانلىق
roman: chapsanliq
lang: Uyghur
word: ئىتتىكلىك
roman: ittiklik