unready
not ready; not made ready: The new stadium is as yet unready for use.
not in a state of readiness; unprepared: emotionally unready for success.
lacking in presence of mind, as when a quick decision or a sharp answer is required: Awkward situations often found him unready.
British Dialect. not dressed.
not prompt or quick.
Origin of unready
1Other words from unready
- un·read·i·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use unready in a sentence
It is no doubt this unreadiness that causes little children to like twice-told tales and foregone conclusions in their games.
Ceres' Runaway | Alice MeynellThe tendency to repeat answers probably arises at first from a mental unreadiness on the part of the teacher.
The Recitation | George Herbert BettsThe public waked up to the sufficiently obvious fact that the Government was in its usual state—perennial unreadiness for war.
Theodore Roosevelt | Theodore RooseveltHis thick hair and scraggy neck gave witness of unreadiness and through his misty glasses weak eyes looked up pleading.
Ulysses | James JoyceIt is a servant to unworthy inertia; and worse, it is a cloak to mental unreadiness and to conscious moral cowardice.
The Story of the Mind | James Mark Baldwin
British Dictionary definitions for unready
/ (ʌnˈrɛdɪ) /
not ready or prepared
slow or hesitant to see or act
archaic not dressed
Derived forms of unready
- unreadily, adverb
- unreadiness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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