Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Rapid

Rap′id (răp′ĭd), a. [L. rapidus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to snatch or hurry away; perhaps akin to Gr. ἀρπάζειν: cf. F. rapide. Cf. Harpy, Ravish.]

1. Very swift or quick; moving with celerity; fast; as, a rapid stream; a rapid flight; a rapid motion.

Ascend my chariot; guide the rapid wheels. Milton.

2. Advancing with haste or speed; speedy in progression; in quick sequence; as, rapid growth; rapid improvement; rapid recurrence; rapid succession.

3. Quick in execution; as, a rapid penman.

Rap′id, n. [Cf. F. rapide. See Rapid, a.] The part of a river where the current moves with great swiftness, but without actual waterfall or cascade; — usually in the plural; as, the Lachine rapids in the St. Lawrence.

Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast, The rapids are near, and the daylight's past. Moore.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.