Emily Dickinson Lexicon

READ-Y, a. [red'y; Sax. ræd, hrad, hræd, quick, brisk, prompt, ready; gerad, prepared, ready, prudent, learned; hradian, gehradian, to hasten, to accelerate; gerædian, to make ready; D. reeden, to prepare; reed, pret. of ryden, to ride; reede, a road; bereid, ready; bereiden, to prepare; gereed, ready; G. bereit, id.; bereiten, to prepare, and to ride; reede, a road; Dan. rede, ready; reder, to make the bed, to rid; rede, an account; Sax. ræd, from the root of read; bereder, to prepare; rider, berider, to ride; Sw. reda, to make ready, to clear or disentangle, Eng. to rid; redo, ready; rida, to ride; bereda, to prepare; Ir. reidh, ready; reidhim, to prepare, to agree; Gr. ῥαδιος, easy; W. rhedu, to run. 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 L. gradior. See Read and Red. Class Rd, No. 23.]

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. – Ps. xlv.
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. – Matth. xxii.
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 xiv. I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. – Acts xxi.
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. – Deut xxvi. Job xxix. Ps. lxxxviii.
9. Being nearest or at hand. A sapling pine he wrench'd from out the ground, / The readiest weapon that his fury found. – Dryden.
10. Easy; facile; opportune; short; near, or most convenient; the Greek sense, ῥαδιος. Sometimes the readiest way which a wise man has to conquer, is to flee. – Hooker. Through the wild desert, not the readiest way. – Milton. The ready way to be thought mad, is to contend you are not so. – Spectator. To make ready, to prepare; to provide and put in order. #2. An elliptical phrase, for make things ready; to make preparations; to prepare.