- a variation of readymade.
ready-made
Americanadjective
-
made in advance for sale to any purchaser, rather than to order.
a ready-made coat.
-
made for immediate use.
-
unoriginal; conventional.
noun
-
something that is ready-made, as a garment or a piece of furniture or equipment.
adjective
-
made for purchase and immediate use by any customer
a ready-made jacket
-
extremely convenient or ideally suited
a ready-made solution
-
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.
Yet boy, did David Rockola, who died at 96 in 1993, have a ready-made market when rock music took off.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
In another context, a president being quietly transferred between aircraft in a service vehicle might register as little more than a piece of security choreography — unusual, perhaps, but hardly ready-made for farce.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
The argument from Crystal Palace campaigners is that by investing in a ready-made stadium, taxpayers save money in the long run, and athletics has a natural home.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 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
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.
