Definition of "fastness"

(uncountable) The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).

1. The quality or state of being strongly attached; firmness, secureness, tenacity.  quotations

   Quotations

   • [T]he thing, as it is, having firſt taken vp her ſtand in the memory, and there by the way of knowledge and witting, imprinted it-ſelfe, it were hard it ſhould not repreſent it ſelfe to the imagination, diſplacing and ſupplanting falſehood, which therein can have no ſuch footing, or ſetled faſtneſſe: […]

     1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Lyers”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], page 16

   • [T]his is the ſure, infallible Teſt of Love, that the Meaſure of its Strength is to be taken by the Faſtneſs of its Hold.

     1699 October 25 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1715, Robert South, “A Discourse Preached at Christ-Church, Oxon, before the University, October 15. 1699.”, in Twelve Sermons Preached at Several Times, and upon Several Occasions, volume IV, London: […] G. James, for Jonah Bowyer […], page 523

   1. (specifically) The ability of a dye to withstand fading.  examples

2. The quality or state of moving quickly; quickness, rapidity, swiftness.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [Frog:] Why are all of us fleein'? What dire peril threatens our sylvan fastness? [Bug:] Just run! Your fastness shouldn't be too slow.

     1959 September 13, Walt Kelly, Pogo, Sunday, comic strip, page 251

3. The quality or state of having an extravagant lifestyle or immoral habits.  examples

4. (archaic) Of a fortress or other place: the quality or state of being secure from access or attack; safety, security.  quotations

   Quotations

   • But now his cruelty ſo ſore ſhe drad, / That to thoſe fennes for faſtneſſe ſhe did fly, / And there her ſelfe did hyde from his hard tyranny.

     1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, stanza 18, page 316

   • The Foes had left the faſtneſs of their Place, / Prevail'd in Fight, and had his Men in Chace.

     1697, Virgil, “The Ninth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], page 492, lines 940–941

5. (obsolete) The quality or state of being firm, hard, or solid; firmness, hardness, solidity.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Which was brought to paſſe I beleue, […] by a good way of Epitome, in binding him ſelfe to tranſlate meros Atticos Oratores, and ſo to bring his ſtyle, from all lowſe groſneſſe, to ſoch firme faſtnes in latin, as is in Demoſthenes in Greeke.

     a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, “[The Second Booke Teachyng the Ready Way to the Latin Tong]”, in Margaret Ascham, editor, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […] John Daye, […], published 1570, folio 44, verso

(countable) Something that is fast, or that causes someone or something to be fast (in various senses).

1. (also figuratively) A fortified or secure place; a fortress, a stronghold.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [I]f the VVelſh compelled by famine ventred out of their ſtrengthes or faſtneſſes, in or about Snovvdon, the Garriſon Souldiers of Gannocke vvere ready to intercept and kill them; […]

     1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Henry the Third, […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 71, page 528, column 1

   • [T]he ſlaves that yet remained in the faſtneſſes of Jamaica, attached to the Spaniſh, and hoſtile to the Engliſh ſettlers, continued to be troubleſome, and at times formidable.

     1803, John Browne Cutting, “A Succinct History of Jamaica”, in R[obert] C[harles] Dallas, The History of the Maroons, from Their Origin to the Establishment of Their Chief Tribe at Sierra Leone: […], volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Strahan, […], for T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O. Rees, page xxxviii

   • The incubators are built in remote fastnesses, where there is little or no likelihood of their being discovered by other tribes.

     1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co.; republished as “Child-raising on Mars”, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1917 October, page 69

   • When she came to know writers it was like adventuring upon a stage which till then she had known only from the other side of the footlights. She saw them dramatically, and really seemed herself to live a larger life because she entertained them and visited them in their fastnesses.

     1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter IV, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], page 26

   • […] though cut glass was nothing new in the nineties, it was then especially busy reflecting the dazzling light of fashion from the Back Bay to the fastnesses of the Middle West.

     1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Cut-Glass Bowl”, in Scribner's Magazine‎

   • When we read Chaucer, we are floated up to him insensibly on the current of our ancestors' lives, […] But the Greeks remain in a fastness of their own.

     1925 April, Virginia Woolf, “On Not Knowing Greek”, in The Common Reader, 2nd edition, London: Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, […], published November 1925

   • On the morning of July 31, the mountain rose spangled in the summer sun 2,300 feet above Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli. Strapping on three oxygen tanks, the two men faced toward K2's last fastness.

     1954 October 11, “Assault on the Summit: The Conquerors' Account”, in Life‎, volume 37, number 15, page 33

   • Their mission in life was to tote bituminous coal out of the mountain fastness of West Virginia and move it west to the gateways of Deepwater, Columbus and Toledo and east to tidewater at Hampton Roads.

     1959, David P. Morgan, editor, Steam’s Finest Hour, Milwaukee, Wis.: Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 60

   • "I have many servants in my mountain fastness, and all the riches I could dream of."

     2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 116

2. (obsolete except British, regional) Something used to fasten or tie; a fastener or fastening.