quick / kwik/ • adj. 1. moving fast or doing something in a short time: some children are particularly quick learners I was much quicker than he was and held him at bay for several laps | he was always quick to point out her faults. ∎  lasting or taking a short time: she took a quick look through the drawers we went to the pub for a quick drink. ∎  happening with little or no delay: prompt: children like to see quick results from their efforts. 2. (of a person) prompt to understand, think, or learn; intelligent: it was quick of him to spot the mistake. ∎  (of a person's eye or ear) keenly perceptive; alert. ∎  (of a person's temper) easily roused.• adv. inf. at a fast rate; quickly: he'll find some place where he can make money quicker | [as interj.] Get out, quick! • n. 1. (the quick) the soft, tender flesh below the growing part of a fingernail or toenail. ∎ fig. the central or most sensitive part of someone or something. 2. [as pl. n.] (the quick) archaic those who are living: the quick and the dead.PHRASES: cut someone to the quick cause someone deep distress by a hurtful remark or action. (as) quick as a flashsee flash.quick on the drawsee draw.quick with child archaic at a stage of pregnancy when movements of the fetus have been felt.DERIVATIVES: quick·ly adv.quick·ness n.ORIGIN: Old English cwic, cwicu ‘alive, animated, alert,’ of Germanic origin; related to Dutch kwiek ‘sprightly’ and German keck ‘saucy,’ from an Indo-European root shared by Latin vivus ‘alive’ and Greek bios, zōē ‘life.’

quick (arch.) living, alive OE.; lively, mobile, active; rapid, swift XIII; functionally active XIV. OE. cwic(u) = OS. quik (Du. kwik), OHG. quek (G. keck bold), ON. kvikr :- Gmc. *kwikwaz, rel. to Goth. *qius (in pl. qiwai):- *kwiwaz, f. IE. base *g^wi- repr. also in L. vīvus, Lith. gývas, OSl. z̄ivū, OIr. biu, beo, Skr. jīvá- living, Gr. bíos.
Hence quick sb. the q., sensitive flesh in the body. XVI. quicken give life to; receive life XIII; make quick or quicker XVII. In earliest use — ON. kvikna (intr.). Comps. quicklime lime that has been burned but not slaked. XIV. quicksand bed of loose wet sand. XV. quickset live slips set in the ground as for a hedge XV; also adj. XVI. quicksilver mercury. OE. cwicseolfor = Du. kwiksilver, OHG. quecsilbar (G. quecksilber). ON. kviksilfr; tr. L. argentum vīvum ‘living silver’.

Quick ★★½ 1993 (R)

Polo stars as Quick, a professional assassin whose latest job is Herschel (Donovan), a mob accountant turned federal witness. When Quick is doublecrossed, she takes off with Herschel as her insurance and a couple of bad guys (Fahey and Davi) on her trail. Not too much sex and lots of violence to go along with the fast pacing. 99m/C VHS, DVD . Teri Polo, Martin Donovan, Jeff Fahey, Robert Davi, Tia Carrere; D: Rick King; W: Frederick Bailey; M: Robert Sprayberry.

quick cut someone to the quick cause someone deep distress by a hurtful remark or action (the quick, literally the soft tender flesh below the growing part of a fingernail or toenail).
the quick and the dead the living and the dead; the phrase comes from the Apostles' Creed in the Book of Common Prayer (1662).

Quick

those who are alive; live plants collectively. especially hawthorne; of ten used in the phrase the quick and the dead.