in quick sticks
- idiom
- Archaic
:
rápidamente
- When she heard the news, she left the office in quick sticks to catch the last train.
Examples
-
We had to pack our bags in quick sticks before the taxi arrived.
-
She finished her homework in quick sticks.
-
The team finished the task in quick sticks to meet the deadline.
-
The cat jumped in quick sticks when it saw the dog.
-
The team finished the task in quick sticks to meet the deadline.
-
We had to pack our bags in quick sticks before the taxi arrived.
-
When she heard the news, she left the office in quick sticks to catch the last train.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Moving or happening quickly
∞
1.0
At a fast speed or without delay
∞
1.0
Quickly and without warning
446
1.4
In a very short time
130
1.0
Happening or done without any delay
84
1.0
Quickly and smoothly
50
3.3
Very quickly, in almost no time
49
3.5
In a quick, careless way
35
2.5
Very quickly in a single moment
27
3.7
Very quickly and without delay
24
3.5
Quickly and with a lot of energy to get things done
23
3.2
Acting quickly with little care
9
2.8
Quickly and without careful thought
7
3.2
Without delay after something happens
6
2.4
To act quickly without delay
4
8.8
Happens very quickly and without delay
3
7.0
Happens very soon
3
3.0
It happens very quickly with little effort
1
5.1
To happen or be done very quickly
1
6.0
Moving at a fairly fast speed
1
8.8
Very fast without waiting
1
2.0
Happen very fast
1
8.6
Very quickly without any delay
1
8.0
In a very quick way, like someone running fast
Happening very quickly
In a very short time
Very fast, without delay
Happens very quickly
It happens very quickly
In a very short time
Soon, without much delay
Antonyms
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'very quickly' is not transparently derivable from the parts: 'in' and 'quick' are clear but 'sticks' has no obvious compositional role here and appears to be dialectal or non-literal. A B1 learner who knows the individual words would therefore be unlikely to infer the idiomatic sense without prior exposure, making the phrase unpredictable and regionally bound rather than compositional.
Etymology
The phrase in quick sticks may come from the children's game 'pick-up sticks'. In that game you must be quick with the sticks to lift one without moving the others, so being 'in quick sticks' came to mean acting 'very quickly'.