fasten

From Middle English fastenen, from Old English fæstnian, from Proto-West Germanic *fastinōn (“to secure, fasten”). Equivalent to fast +‎ -en.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑːsən/, /ˈfɑːsn̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfæsən/, /ˈfæsn̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation) -ɑːsən, (General American) -æsən

fasten (third-person singular simple present fastens, present participle fastening, simple past and past participle fastened)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To attach or connect in a secure manner.

   The sailor fastened the boat to the dock with a half-hitch.

   Fasten your seat belts!

   Can you fasten these boards together with some nails?

   • May 31, 1711, Jonathan Swift, The Examiner No. 43

     The words Whig and Tory have been pressed to the service of many successions of parties, with very different ideas fastened to them.

2. To cause to take close effect; to make to tell; to land.

   to fasten a blow

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     if I can fasten but one cup upon him

• Stefan, nefast

Middle High German vasten, from Old High German fastēn, from Proto-Germanic *fastāną.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfastn̩/, /ˈfastən/
• Homophone: fassten
• Hyphenation: fas‧ten; pre-1996: fa‧sten

fasten (weak, third-person singular present fastet, past tense fastete, past participle gefastet, auxiliary haben)

1. to fast

• Fasten
• Fastenzeit
• Fastnacht

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaːstən/
• Hyphenation: fas‧ten; pre-1996: fa‧sten

fasten

1. inflection of fasen:
   1. first/third-person plural preterite
   2. first/third-person plural subjunctive II

• “fasten” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “fasten” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “fasten” in Duden online
• “fasten” in OpenThesaurus.de

• fasta

fasten m or f

1. definite masculine singular of faste

From Proto-Germanic *fastāną.

fastēn

1. to fast

• fasta (“fast”, noun)
  • →? Proto-Slavic: *postъ

• Middle High German: vasten
  • Cimbrian: bastan
  • German: fasten
  • Luxembourgish: faaschten
  • Yiddish: פֿאַסטן (fastn)