1. Home
2. Idioms
3. at the ready

at the ready

---

---

at the ready

Available for use at any time. My sister could go into labor any day now, so I have my phone constantly at the ready. The volunteers descended on the garden, their shovels at the ready.

See also: ready

at the ready

ready for use Military police leapt out of the car, their weapons at the ready.

See also: ready

at the ready

Available for immediate use, as in Umbrellas at the ready, we were prepared to brave the storm. This idiom was originally a military term in which the ready denoted the position of a firearm prepared to be raised and aimed or fired. [First half of 1800s]

See also: ready

at the ready

Available for immediate use: soldiers with machine guns at the ready; students with notebooks at the ready.

See also: ready