READY, adjective red'y. [Eng. to rid; redo, ready; rida, to ride; bereda, to prepare. Gr. easy. The primary sense is to go, move, or advance forward, and it seems to be clear that ready ride, read, riddle, are all of one family, and probably from the root of Latin gradior. See Read and Red.]

1. Quick; prompt; not hesitating; as ready wit; a ready consent.

2. Quick to receive or comprehend; not slow or dull; as a ready apprehension.

3. Quick in action or execution; dextrous; as an artist ready in his business; a ready writer. Psalms 45:1.

4. Prompt; not delayed present in hand. He makes ready payment; he pays ready money for every thing he buys.

5. Prepared; fitted; furnished with what is necessary, or disposed in a manner suited to the purpose; as a ship ready for sea.

My oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready Matthew 22:4.

6. Willing; free; cheerful to do or suffer; not backward or reluctant; as a prince always ready to grant the reasonable requests of his subjects.

The spirit is ready but the flesh is weak. Mark 14:15.

I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Acts 21:13.

7. Willing; disposed. Men are generally ready to impute blame to others. They are more ready to give than to take reproof.

8. Being at the point; near; not distant; about to do or suffer.

A Syrian ready to perish was my father. Deuteronomy 26:5. Job 29:13. Psalms 88:15.

9. Being nearest or at hand.

A sapling pine he wrench'd from out the ground, the readiest weapon that his fury found.

10. Easy; facile; opportune; short; near, or most convenient; the Greek sense.

Sometimes the readiest way which a wise man has to conquer, is to flee.

Through the wild desert, not the readiest way.

The ready way to be thought mad, is to contend you are not so.

1. To make ready to prepare; to provide and put in order.

2. An elliptical phrase, for make things ready; to make preparations; to prepare.

READY, adverb red'y. In a state of preparation, so as to need no delay.

We ourselves will go ready armed before the house of Israel. Numbers 32:17.

READY, noun red'y. For ready money.

Lord Strut was not flush in ready either to go to law, or to clear old debts. [A low word.]

READY, verb transitive red'y. To dispose in order; to prepare. [Not in use.]