rapidlyadv.

1653 J. Webster Academiarum Examen v. 49 From these they ground the motion of the tenth, ninth, and eighth Sphere, making the tenth Sphere move most rapidly from East to West in that space which we call 24. hours.

1690 J. Norris Christian Blessedness vi. 157 [The Heart is] the most active and most rapidly moving thing in the World.

1727 P. Frowde Fall of Saguntum i. 24 Streams, with each other crost..'Till in the Rhone's capacious Bed they're lost; united there, roll rapidly away.

a1751 Visct. Bolingbroke Wks. (1754) IV. 102 Thales is said to have held, that mind..was the swiftest of things, and pervaded rapidly the universe.

1785 W. Cowper Task i. 130 Our years, As life declines, speed rapidly away.

1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 272 The crystals are deposited rapidly.

1867 G. H. Lewes Hist. Philos. (ed. 3) II. 113 Carried along by the rapidly-swelling current of their age.

1887 C. Bowen tr. Virgil Æneid i in tr. Virgil in Eng. Verse 75 Lightnings rapidly flash.

1909 W. James Psychology iii. 46 The colors rapidly become distincter as the light increases.

1939 W. S. Elsbree Amer. Teacher ii. xvii. 203 The domain formerly dominated by man was rapidly passing into the hands of the ‘fairer sex.’

1950 ‘C. S. Forester’ Mr. Midshipman Hornblower vi On the other side of the marsh a column of troops could be seen marching rapidly along the bank.

1991 Afr. Affairs 90 614 With a rapidly rising population, it is increasingly difficult to get land for farming or for housing.