SPEED, v.i. pret. and pp. sped, speeded. [The L. expedio may be from the same root, which signifies to drive, to hurry, of the family of L. peto.]

1. Swiftness; quickness; celerity; applied to animals. We say, a man or a horse runs or travels with speed; a fowl flies with speed. We speak of the speed of a fish in the water, but we do not speak of the speed of a river, or of wind, or of a falling body. I think however I have seen the word applied to the lapse of time and the motion of lightning, but in poetry only.
2. Haste; dispatch; as, to perform a journey with speed; execute an order with speed.
3. Rapid pace; as, a horse of speed. We say also, high speed, full speed.
4. Success; prosperity in an undertaking; favorable issue; that is, advance to the desired end. O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day. – Gen. xxiv. This use is retained in the proverb “to make more haste than good speed,” and in the Scriptural phrase, “to bid one good speed,” [not God speed, as erroneously written.]

1. To make haste; to move with celerity. – Shak.
2. To have success; to prosper; to succeed; that is, to advance in one's enterprise. He that's once deni'd will hardly speed. – Shak. Those that profaned and abused the second temple, sped no better. – South
3. To have any condition good or ill; to fare. Ships heretofore in seas like fishes sped, / The mightiest still upon the smallest fed. – Waller.

1. To dispatch; to send away in haste. He sped him thence home to his habitation. – Fairfax.
2. To hasten; to hurry; to put in quick motion. But sped his steps along the hoarse resounding shore. – Dryden.
3. To hasten to a conclusion; to execute; to dispatch; as, to speed judicial acts. – Ayliffe.
4. To assist; to help forward; to hasten. With rising gales that sped their happy flight. – Dryden.
5. To prosper; to cause to succeed. May heaven speed this undertaking.
6. To furnish in haste.
7. To dispatch; to kill; to ruin; to destroy. With a speeding thrust his heart he found. – Dryden. A dire dilemma! either way I'm sped! / If foes, they write, if friends they read me dead. – Pope. Note. In the phrase, “God speed,” there is probably gross mistake in considering it as equivalent to “may God give you success.” The true phrase is probably “good speed;” good in Saxon, being written god. I bid you or wish you good speed, that is, good success.

1. Prosperity in an undertaking; favorable issue; success.
   
   
   "For common speed." Chaucer.

   O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day. Gen. xxiv. 12.

2. To go; to fare.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   To warn him now he is too farre sped. Remedy of Love.

3. To cause to be successful, or to prosper; hence, to aid; to favor.
   
   
   "Fortune speed us!" Shak.

   With rising gales that speed their happy flight. Dryden.

4. The act or state of moving swiftly; swiftness; velocity; rapidly; rate of motion; dispatch; as, the speed a horse or a vessel.
   
   

   Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails. Milton.

   * In kinematics, speedis sometimes used to denote the amount of velocity without regard to direction of motion, while velocity is not regarded as known unless both the direction and the amount are known.

5. To experience in going; to have any condition, good or ill; to fare.
   
   
   Shak.

   Ships heretofore in seas like fishes sped;
   The mightiest still upon the smallest fed. Waller.

6. To cause to make haste; to dispatch with celerity; to drive at full speed; hence, to hasten; to hurry.
   
   

   He sped him thence home to his habitation. Fairfax.

7. One who, or that which, causes or promotes speed or success.
   
   
   [Obs.] "Hercules be thy speed!" Shak.

   God speed, Good speed; prosperity. See Godspeed. -- Speed gauge, Speed indicator, ***and] Speed recorder (Mach.), devices for indicating or recording the rate of a body's motion, as the number of revolutions of a shaft in a given time. -- Speed lathe (Mach.), a power lathe with a rapidly revolving spindle, for turning small objects, for polishing, etc.; a hand lathe. -- Speed pulley, a cone pulley with steps.

   Syn. -- Haste; swiftness; celerity; quickness; dispatch; expedition; hurry; acceleration. See Haste.

8. To fare well; to have success; to prosper.
   
   

   Save London, and send true lawyers their meed!
   For whoso wants money with them shall not speed! Lydgate.

   I told ye then he should prevail, and speed
   On his bad errand. Milton.

9. To hasten to a conclusion; to expedite.
   
   

   Judicial acts . . . are sped in open court at the instance of one or both of the parties. Ayliffe.

10. To make haste; to move with celerity.
    
    

    I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility. Shak.

11. To hurry to destruction; to put an end to; to ruin; to undo.
    
    
    "Sped with spavins." Shak.

    A dire dilemma! either way I 'm sped.
    If foes, they write, if friends, they read, me dead. Pope.

12. To be expedient.
    
    
    [Obs.] Wyclif (2 Cor. xii. 1.)
13. To wish success or god fortune to, in any undertaking, especially in setting out upon a journey.
    
    

    Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest. Pope.

    God speed you, them, etc., may God speed you; or, may you have good speed.

    Syn. -- To dispatch; hasten; expedite; accelerate; hurry.