ready - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Borrowed from English ready, from the English-language sequence on your marks, ready, set, go, of which only ready is used translingually.

ready

  1. (sports) The command to make ready, regardless of language of competitors, used in multiple sports to get contestants to their marks in preparation to start.

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”).

ready (comparative readier, superlative readiest)

  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.
    • 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:
      Miranda: I'll admit it, Shepard. I'm impressed. You got us here. Are you ready?
      Shepard: We're going in blind, and we don't even know if we'll survive the trip. No way in hell we're ready... but we don't have a choice.
    1. (prepositive) first only used predicatively, freely used from the end of the 17th century [from c. 1550's]
      a loaf of ready-sliced bread
      The cave was like a ready-made home for us.
      • 1565, Theodore Beza, The 7 poynt, of the clericall tonsure, in Robert Fyll, transl., A briefe and piththie summe of the Christian faith, page 149r:
        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, […]
      • 1696, A Collection for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, volumes 9-11, page 8:
        […] and whoever can keep their Corps till they can ſend to London, and have a ready-made Coffin ſent down, may afterwards have them kept any reaſonable time.
      • 1795, publisher:w:Ralph Griffith, “Price's Eſſay on the Pictureſques”, in The Monthly Review (London), volume XVI, page 316:
        […] but, in the improvement of a place in which Nature has furnished few materials in which the groundwork of improvement is tame, and in which suitable diſtances cannot be had, the rules of ſcience and the "ready-made taste" of connoiſſeurs are of little avail to the artiſt.
  2. Inclined; apt to happen.
  3. Liable at any moment.
    Synonym: fit
    The seed is ready to sprout.
  4. Not slow or hesitating; quick in action or perception of any kind.
    Synonyms: dexterous, prompt, easy, expert
    a ready apprehension
    ready wit
    a ready writer or workman
    • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The First Gun”, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 16:
      Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I recollect she had very beautiful brown eyes.
    • 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
      The [Washington] Post's proprietor through those turbulent [Watergate] days, Katharine Graham, held a double place in Washington’s hierarchy: at once regal Georgetown hostess and scrappy newshound, ready to hold the establishment to account.
  5. Offering itself at once; at hand; opportune; convenient.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, line 1097:
      Through the wilde Deſert, not the readieſt way,
    • 1700, John Dryden, Theodore and Honoria:
      A sapling pine he wrenched from out the ground, / The readiest weapon that his fury found.

inclined, apt to happen

liable at any moment

not slow or hesitating; quick in action or perception

at hand; opportune; convenient

Translations to be checked

ready (third-person singular simple present readies, present participle readying, simple past and past participle readied)

  1. (transitive) To prepare; to make ready for action.
    • 2025 July 7, Melissa Gomez, Rachel Uranga and Brittny Mejia, “Heavily armed immigration agents descend on L.A.’s MacArthur Park”, in Los Angeles Times‎[1], archived from the original on 8 July 2025:
      Immigration agents in military green surrounded MacArthur Park as the convoy readied for a show of force akin to a Hollywood movie.

to make prepared for action

ready (countable and uncountable, plural readies)

  1. (slang) Ready money; cash.
    • 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “A Copy of Bull and Frog’s Letter to Lord Strutt”, in Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC, page 8:
      [H]e vvas not fluſh in Ready, either to go to Lavv or clear old Debts, neither could he find good Bail: […]
    • 1927, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados Mysteries:
      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.
    • 2008, Agnes Owens, The Group:
      […] 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 […]