fast forward

• fast-forward

fast forward (third-person singular simple present fast forwards, present participle fast forwarding, simple past and past participle fast forwarded)

1. (transitive) To cause an audio or video tape, digital media stream, etc. to move forward very fast, so that when the device is played, it will start at a later point.
2. (intransitive) To be fast-forwarded; to move ahead in this fashion.
3. (intransitive, figuratively, by extension) To shift one's attention or focus toward a later point in time.
   • 2012, Alan D. Hemmings, Donald R. Rothwell, Karen N. Scott, Antarctic Security in the Twenty-First Century, page 77:

     Antarctica was remote, little of value […] was at stake, and few states had the capacity to get to Antarctica or otherwise challenge the claimants. […] Fast-forward to the present, and the picture looks somewhat different.

4. (transitive, by extension) To accelerate.
   • 2019 May 30, Karen Weintraub, “Crispr gene-editing will change the way Americans eat – here's what's coming”, in The Guardian‎:

     Lippman said Crispr is an incredibly useful tool in research, allowing him to ask new questions of the tomato plants he breeds, by fast-forwarding the research process. “The amount of genetics that we’re currently able to do has at least quintupled in the last three years,” he said.

• rewind

fast forward (countable and uncountable, plural fast forwards)

1. The feature that allows media to be fast-forwarded.
2. A button that causes media to be fast forwarded.

• rewind

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• fast backward
• rewind

• “fast forward”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.