ready
adjectiveverbnountop 1 000 in film dialogue
- Canada//ˈɹɛd.i//
- Australia//ˈɹed.i//
- //ˈrɛɖi//
Prepared for immediate action or use.
adjective
- 1
Prepared for immediate action or use.
I made ready to set out on my journey.
The troops are ready for battle.
The porridge is ready to serve.
If need be, I am ready to forego / And quit:
- 2
Prepared for immediate action or use. first only used predicatively, freely used from the end of the 17th century
a loaf of ready-sliced bread
The cave was like a ready-made home for us.
First their must be a clericall tonſure whereas they clyp thꝛee oꝛ fowꝛe lyttle heaires in his crowne, and he muſt[…]be hold a Priest ready made able to haue a benefice,[…]
But you muſt take a body ready made, Pug I can create you none[…]
- 3
Inclined; apt to happen.
- 4
Liable at any moment.
The seed is ready to sprout.
My heart is ready to crack.
- 5
Not slow or hesitating; quick in action or perception of any kind.
a ready apprehension
ready wit
a ready writer or workman
whose temper was ready, though surly
- 6
Offering itself at once; at hand; opportune; convenient.
Through the wilde Deſert, not the readieſt way,
A sapling pine he wrenched from out the ground, / The readiest weapon that his fury found.
Etymology
From Middle English redy, redi, rædiȝ, iredi, ȝerǣdi, alteration ( + -y) of earlier irēd, irede, ȝerād (“ready, prepared”), from Old English rǣde, ġerǣde (also ġerȳde) ("prepared, prompt, ready, ready for riding (horse), mounted (on a horse), skilled, simple, easy"), from Proto-Germanic *garaidijaz, *raidijaz, from base *raidaz (“ready”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂reh₁dʰ-, *h₂reh₁- (“to count, put in order, arrange, make comfortable”) and also probably conflated with Proto-Indo-European *reydʰ- (“to ride”) in the sense of "set to ride, able or fit to go, ready". Cognate with Scots readie, reddy (“ready, prepared”), West Frisian ree (“ready”), Dutch gereed (“ready”), German bereit (“ready”), Danish rede (“ready”), Swedish redo (“ready, fit, prepared”), Norwegian reiug (“ready, prepared”), Icelandic greiður (“easy, light”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (garaiþs, “arranged, ordered”).
verb
- 1
To prepare; to make ready for action.
Immigration agents in military green surrounded MacArthur Park as the convoy readied for a show of force akin to a Hollywood movie.
noun
- 1
slangReady money; cash.
[H]e vvas not fluſh in Ready, either to go to Lavv or clear old Debts, neither could he find good Bail: […]
But it's no secret that W. & S. have been getting short of the ready for more than a year now; it's claimed that the fire began in three or four places at once; and Mr Barrowford was the last to leave the premises.
[…] he was generous when he had the cash. Many a time he kept me going in drink through the week when I was stuck for the ready […]
Forms
- plural
- readies
- comparative
- readier
- superlative
- readiest
- past tense
- readied
- past participle
- readied
- present participle
- readying
- third person singular
- readies
ready · Prepared for immediate action or use.
Ready · A surname.Reagan · A surname from Irish; variant forms Regan, Riggen.real · True, genuine, not merely nominal or apparent.