make haste

Idioms and Phrases

Also, make it snappy . Hurry up, move or act quickly, as in If you don't make haste we'll be late , or Make it snappy, kids . The first expression was first recorded in Miles Coverdale's 1535 translation of the Bible (Psalms 39:13): “Make haste, O Lord, to help me.” The variant dates from the early 1900s and uses snappy in the sense of “resembling a sudden jerk.” The oxymoron make haste slowly , dating from the mid-1700s, is a translation of the Latin festina lente . It is used either ironically, to slow someone down (as in You'll do better if you make haste slowly ), or to comment sarcastically on a lack of progress (as in So far the committee has been making haste slowly ).

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