ready-made
Americanadjective
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made in advance for sale to any purchaser, rather than to order.
a ready-made coat.
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made for immediate use.
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unoriginal; conventional.
noun
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something that is ready-made, as a garment or a piece of furniture or equipment.
adjective
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made for purchase and immediate use by any customer
a ready-made jacket
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extremely convenient or ideally suited
a ready-made solution
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unoriginal or conventional
ready-made phrases
noun
Etymology
Origin of ready-made
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50
Explanation
Ready-made things are standardized and bought right off the shelf, rather than being specially made. You might have to hem your ready-made curtains, but they're cheaper than having custom curtains sewn. Ready-made clothes are the ones you buy in stores or online that come in standard sizes. Custom, tailor-made, or bespoke clothing is the exact opposite — they're constructed to perfectly fit your body. Ready-made food is store-bought, and made commercially, not homemade. You can also use this adjective to describe something that's so quick and automatic it's become a cliche, like a politician's thoughtless, ready-made response to a reporter's question.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Authors and academics are often the worst abusers of ready-made phrases and buzzwords.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
So was Slot purely the beneficiary of taking over ready-made title winners then simply steering them to glory?
From BBC ● May 30, 2026
"These images may reveal intact patches of bone collagen, potentially offering a ready-made trove of fossil candidates for further protein analysis," Taylor explained.
From Science Daily ● May 14, 2026
Use ready-made powerhouses Miso, canned beans, coconut cream, good stock: ingredients that arrive already carrying flavor.
From Salon ● Apr. 3, 2026
Her face, like all the other faces in the picture, had been done in a cheap-priced, ready-made flesh-tint.
From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
