Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

speed

2 verb
     
speed2 S3 past tense and past participle sped also speeded
1 [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] to go quickly:
The car sped along the dusty highway.
2 [transitive always + adverb/preposition] to take someone or something somewhere very quickly:
An ambulance sped her to the hospital.
3

be speeding

SCC to be driving faster than the legal limit:
I got caught speeding on the A40 yesterday.
4 also speed something ↔ up [transitive] to make something happen faster [≠ slow down]:
This news should speed his recovery.

speed by

phrasal verb
if time speeds by, it seems to pass very quickly:
The weeks sped by and soon it was time to go back to school.

speed up

phrasal verb
to move or happen faster, or to make something move or happen faster [≠ slow down]:
The truck speeded up going down the hill.
speed sth↔ up
The new system will speed up the registration process.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
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