Quranic root
وفض
w · f · ḍ
The lexical record preserves three divergent branches: rapid movement, groups or mixed multitudes, and a quiver or carrying container.
The rapid-movement branch includes hastening, haste, swift movement, and flight from fright. The dispersal branch is associated with dispersed groups, while the container branch includes quivers, bags, and related vessels. The sources present these branches as divergent rather than deriving them from one securely stated common principle.
- Maqāyīs · row 5174
- Mufradāt · row 1596
- Lane · entry 45543
- Lane · entry 45544
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَوْفَضَ
ʾawfaḍa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To hasten or go quickly.
In the Quranic occurrence, يُوفِضُونَ is used with إِلَى in describing people rushing toward a raised object set up for worship.
- Lane · entry 45538
- Mufradāt · row 1596
Selected Quran examples
Quran 70:43word 9
“hastening”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 70:43يُوفِضُونَhastening
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 14 Classical meanings
وَفَضَ
To become dispersed.
Attested specifically of camels dispersing while grazing.
- Lane · entry 45538
وَفَّضَ
To place a skin or pad beneath a hand mill.
The pad is called وِفَاضٌ or وَفَاضٌ.
- Lane · entry 30594
أَوْفَضَ
To make a she-camel go at the fast pace called خَبَب.
This is a transitive usage distinct from the Quranic intransitive sense of hastening.
- Lane · entry 45539
أَوْفَضَ
To disperse camels.
A transitive usage reported alongside the use for making a she-camel go quickly.
- Lane · entry 45539
أَوْفَضَ
To spread a carpet or similar covering for another, protecting that person from the ground.
Used with a beneficiary, as in أَوْفَضَ لَهُ.
- Lane · entry 45539
اِسْتَوْفَضَ
To urge, require, or command another to hasten.
A reported transitive use in which another person or creature is urged to move quickly.
- Lane · entry 45540
اِسْتَوْفَضَ
To hasten or hurry.
The lexical report also gives an intransitive or self-directed use, alongside the use for urging another.
- Lane · entry 45540
اِسْتَوْفَضَ
To drive away or expel; to banish someone from the country.
Applied both to driving away camels or an ostrich and to expelling a person.
- Lane · entry 45540
وَفْضٌ
Haste or a state of hurried movement.
Also attested as وَفَضٌ; used in expressions meaning “in haste,” with the plural أَوْفَاضٌ.
- Lane · entry 45541
- Lane · entry 45538
وَفْضَةٌ
A leather carrying bag or quiver-like container for implements, provisions, or arrows.
Descriptions include a shepherd’s bag, a skin quiver, and a small quiver-like vessel used for carrying food.
- Lane · entry 45543
وَفْضَةٌ
The small depression between the moustaches beneath the nose.
An anatomical usage applied to a man.
- Lane · entry 45543
أَوْفَاضٌ
Groups or mixed multitudes of people; by extension, poor, weak, or defenseless people.
A plural term explained variously as a scattered or mixed company from different tribes, including the people known as Ahl al-Suffa. The social description is a reported variant, not a restriction on every occurrence.
- Lane · entry 45544
مِيفَاضٌ
Going quickly or swiftly.
Applied in the cited usage to a she-camel or an ostrich.
- Lane · entry 45545
مُسْتَوُفِضٌ
Hastening or fleeing because of fright; frightened.
The term can describe rapid flight caused by fear as well as the state of being frightened.
- Lane · entry 45546
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic example uses 70:43:9 because that location is independently supplied by QAC; Lane’s printed citation “[lxx. 43]” is not treated as a modern location transcription.
The explanations of أَوْفَاضٌ vary between a mixed or scattered group and poor or defenseless people; both attested branches are retained under one plural-group meaning.