ready

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 *rēydʰ-, *rēy- (“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”).

• enPR: rĕd'i, IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛdi/

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  Homophones: reddy

  Rhymes: -ɛdi

• Hyphenation: read‧y

ready (comparative readier, superlative readiest)

1. Prepared for immediate action or use.

   The troops are ready for battle.  The porridge is ready to serve.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     If need be, I am ready to forego / And quit.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Henry Fielding

     Dinner was ready.

2. Inclined; apt to happen.
3. Liable at any moment.

   The seed is ready to sprout.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     My heart is ready to crack.

4. Not slow or hesitating; quick in action or perception of any kind; dexterous; prompt; easy; expert.

   a ready apprehension;  ready wit;  a ready writer or workman

   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Scott

     […] whose temper was ready, through surly

   • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Macaulay

     ready in devising expedients

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175, page 062:

     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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     the readiest way

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

     A sapling pine he wrenched from out the ground, / The readiest weapon that his fury found.

• good to go

• unready

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.

• foreready
• readiness
• ready-made
• ready-mixed
• ready-to-wear

ready (countable and uncountable, plural readies)

1. (slang) ready money; cash
   • (Can we date this quote?) Arbuthnot

     Lord Strut was not flush in ready, either to go to law, or to clear old debts.

   • Agnes Owens

     […] 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 […]

• already

• dayer, deary, deray, rayed, yeard