ready

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”).

adj

1. Prepared for immediate action or use.
   The troops are ready for battle.
   The porridge is ready to serve.
   she was told dinner was ready 1711, Jonathan Swift, journal to Stella
   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. 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2
2. Inclined; apt to happen.
3. Liable at any moment.
   The seed is ready to sprout.
4. Not slow or hesitating; quick in action or perception of any kind.
   a ready apprehension
   ready wit
   a ready writer or workman
   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. 2013-08-10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848
5. Offering itself at once; at hand; opportune; convenient.
   A sapling pine he wrenched from out the ground, / The readiest weapon that his fury found. 1700, John Dryden, Theodore and Honoria

verb

1. (transitive) To prepare; to make ready for action.

noun

1. (slang) Ready money; cash.
   […] 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 […] 2008, Agnes Owens, The Group