Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Fast
Fast as a jack rabbit in front of a prairie fire.
—Anonymous
Fast as a dog will lick a dish.
—Anonymous
As fast as the foam-flakes drift on the river.
—Anonymous
As fast as a fisher could let out line.
—J. M. Barrie
Fast as Time’s swift pinions can convey.
—Samuel Boyse
Fast as the streaming rain.
—Thomas Chatterton
Gulp it down as fast as a Neapolitan beggar does a plateful of free scalding-hot macaroni.
—Henry T. Finck
Served as fast as you throw the five baseballs at the colored gentleman’s head.
—O. Henry
Our days run
As fast away as does the sun;
And as a vapour, or a drop of rain
Once lost, can ne’er be found again.
—Robert Herrick
Fast as the rolling seasons bring
The hour of fate to those we love.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
Fast as light.
—Victor Hugo
Fast as a horse can trot.
—Ben Jonson
Spend vows as fast as vapors, which go off
Even with the fumes.
—Charles Lamb
Fast as windy flames devour.
—George Meredith
Fading fast as rainbows.
—Thomas Moore
Held her fast, mercilessly, as a snake holds a little bird.
—Dinah Maria Mulock
Fast as a dog can trot.
—François Rabelais
Fast as the magnet flies.
—Edmond Rostand
As fast as the simoon’s desert wind.
—Friedrich Rückert
Fast as an eagle through the air.
—Friedrich von Schiller
Fast
As lagging fowls before the northern blast.
—William Shakespeare
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum.
—William Shakespeare
Entrap the hearts of men, faster than gnats in cobwebs.
—William Shakespeare
Faster than thought or time.
—William Shakespeare
Fast as autumn days toward winter.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Fast as fire on earth devours.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Fast as the gin’s grip of a wayfarer.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Fast as warriors grip their brands when battle’s bolt is hurled.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Made fast as with anchors to land.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Fast in bondage as herded beasts.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Fast as storm could speed.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Faster than dolphins do o’ershoot the tide, cours’d by the yawning shark.
—Charles J. Wells
Fast as a musician scatters sound
Out of an instrument.
—William Wordsworth