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READINESS
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Prompt willingness
Example:
he tried to explain his forwardness in battle
Synonyms:
eagerness; forwardness; readiness; zeal
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("readiness" is a kind of...):
willingness (cheerful compliance)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A natural effortlessness
Example:
a happy readiness of conversation
Synonyms:
facility; readiness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("readiness" is a kind of...):
effortlessness (the quality of requiring little effort)
Derivation:
ready (apprehending and responding with speed and sensitivity)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(psychology) being temporarily ready to respond in a particular way
Example:
his instructions deliberately gave them the wrong set
Synonyms:
readiness; set
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("readiness" is a kind of...):
cognitive state; state of mind (the state of a person's cognitive processes)
Domain category:
psychological science; psychology (the science of mental life)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The state of having been made ready or prepared for use or action (especially military action)
Example:
their preparation was more than adequate
Synonyms:
preparation; preparedness; readiness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("readiness" is a kind of...):
state (the way something is with respect to its main attributes)
Attribute:
ready (completely prepared or in condition for immediate action or use or progress)
unready (not prepared or in a state of readiness; slow to understand or respond)
Domain category:
armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "readiness"):
ready (poised for action)
alert; qui vive (condition of heightened watchfulness or preparation for action)
Derivation:
ready (completely prepared or in condition for immediate action or use or progress)
Context examples:
She felt immediately that she should like him; and there was a well-bred ease of manner, and a readiness to talk, which convinced her that he came intending to be acquainted with her, and that acquainted they soon must be.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Colonel Fitzwilliam entered into conversation directly with the readiness and ease of a well-bred man, and talked very pleasantly; but his cousin, after having addressed a slight observation on the house and garden to Mrs. Collins, sat for some time without speaking to anybody.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Mrs Musgrove was good humouredly beginning to express her perfect readiness for the play, if Henrietta and all the others liked it, when Mary eagerly interrupted her by exclaiming—Good heavens, Charles! how can you think of such a thing?
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Two days after this adventure, the emperor, having ordered that part of his army which quarters in and about his metropolis, to be in readiness, took a fancy of diverting himself in a very singular manner.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Sir Nigel and his lady walked on in deep talk, while a fat under-steward took charge of the three comrades, and led them to the buttery, where beef, bread, and beer were kept ever in readiness for the wayfarer.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I believe the readiness of our return volley had scattered the mutineers once more, for we were suffered without further molestation to get the poor old gamekeeper hoisted over the stockade and carried, groaning and bleeding, into the log-house.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
I do not suppose that, when a drunkard reasons with himself upon his vice, he is once out of five hundred times affected by the dangers that he runs through his brutish, physical insensibility; neither had I, long as I had considered my position, made enough allowance for the complete moral insensibility and insensate readiness to evil, which were the leading characters of Edward Hyde.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
I was prepared for him again to set aside my question, and was surprised at the readiness of his reply.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
I thanked her for her considerate choice, and as I really felt fatigued with my long journey, expressed my readiness to retire.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
My word being passed to myself, there is no longer any apprehension; but I pledge it to you, too, with the greatest readiness.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
