[f. SPEED v.]
† 1. Well-speeding, successful. Obs.–1
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 235. Whoso hath the Paas large and slow, he is wyse and wel spedynge in al his dedys.
2. Leading with speed; rapid, direct.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XXII. 280. Where th’unequal winding bone … had place, and where there lay The speeding way to death.
1641. H. L’Estrange, God’s Sabbath, 81. For (to take a short and speeding course) the most embraced and popular opinion is, that [etc.].
b. Causing to move with speed; favoring.
1757. W. Wilkie, Epigoniad, IV. 86. To speeding gales I saw the canvass rise.
c. Moving with speed.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Visit, Wks. (Bohn), I. 404. Speeding Saturn cannot halt.
1884. Marshall’s Tennis Cuts, 269. Till the speeding ball appeared as One continuous flash of lightning.
† 3. Dispatching, finishing; deadly, fatal. Obs.
c. 1600[?]. Distr. Emperor, II. i. in Bullen, O. Pl. (1884), III. 185. Twas a speedinge plott To send me into Spayne.
1621. Lady M. Wroth, Urania, 313. He might chuse the most mischeuing, & most speeding hurt for him.
1660. May, Hen. II., VI. 419. A speeding feaver seiz’d his vitall part.
1693. Dryden, etc. Juvenal, xii. 22. A Neck so strong, so large, as wou’d demand The speeding Blow of some uncommon hand.
† b. Liable to a fatal wound. Obs.
1612. T. James, Jesuits’ Downef., 68. The best weapons the Iesuits haue to defend themselues, and wound their opposits in the speedingst place they can.
1631. Heywood, Fair Maid of West, I. Wks. 1874, II. 278. You hit him in the very speeding place.
† 4. Effective; decisive. Obs.
1612. Webster, White Devil, Wks. (Rtldg.), 36/2. There’s no way More speeding than this thought on.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., I. iii. 40. The slye whorsons Haue got a speeding tricke to lay downe Ladies.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 212. If he could produce but one ancient Copy, (which is a speeding argument in Scaligers and Casaubons Grammar learning).
5. Serving to further, advance or aid.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Noble Gent., III. i. I am resolv’d my Wife shall up to Court;… that is a speeding course, And cannot chuse but breed a mighty fortune.
1812. Cary, Dante, Paradise, XXII. 41. Such a speeding grace shone over me, That from their impious worship I reclaim’d The dwellers round about.
Hence Speedingly adv.
1647. N. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 77. Pray speedily therefore, and speedingly.
