expedite

UK/ˈɛk.spəˌdaɪt/US/ˈɛk.spɪˌdaɪt/

verbC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,669 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: expedited, expediting, expedites

To expedite is to make a process happen faster. Expedite the order, expedite a request, expedited shipping.

It is business and official language, and it usually means moving something up a queue rather than doing it better. The Latin behind it means to free the feet, as of a man unshackled — the idea is removing what was holding the thing up.

Definitions of expedite

1verbexpediteTo make a process happen faster.C1
“If you pay an extra fee, the office can expedite your passport application.”

expedite is a hastening.

Where it comes from

Latin expedire means to free the feet — ex, out, plus pes, a foot. Impede is its exact opposite.

Proto-Indo-European
*ped-
Latin
expedītus — unimpeded, unfettered
English, today
expedite

Built from

expediō · Latin — bring forward, set right

From Latin expedītus (“unimpeded, unfettered”), perfect passive participle of expediō (“bring forward, set right”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Verbs

Practise this word

expedite in the wild

The precedent set by the case of Sun Hudson may have helped to expedite the removal of Nikolouzos from artificial respiration prior to the move.
Spiro Nikolouzos case
The town changed its name during the 1910s to Amber (and then changed the lake name to Amber) to avoid confusion and expedite the mail service.
Amber, Washington
The bridge was originally built to expedite the evacuation of Seoul residents during a potential attack by North Korea.
Hannam Bridge
Also, its proximity to the athletes village helped expedite the transportation of athletes and helped ensure their safety.
2011 Pan American Games closing ceremony

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary