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rdent; fiery; violent; impetuous. "In sharp contest of battle." Milton. A sharp assault already is begun. Dryden.

To render more quick or acute in perception; to make more ready or ingenious. The air . . . sharpened his visual ray To objects distant far. Milton. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Burke.

Full of, or ready with, shifts; fertile in expedients or contrivance. Wright. Shifty and thrifty as old Greek or modern Scot, there were few things he could not invent, and perhaps nothing he could not endure. C. Kingsley.

A sandbank or bar which makes the water shoal. The god himself with ready trident stands, And opes the deep, and spreads the moving sands, Then heaves them off the shoals. Dryden.

ce should be so short. Spenser. He commanded those who were appointed to attend him to be ready by a short day. Clarendon.

To conseal and appropriate. [Slang] If sent with ready money to buy anything, and you happen to be out of pocket, sink the money, and take up the goods on account. Swift.

Possessed of, or displaying, skill; knowing and ready; expert; well-versed; able in management; as, a skillful mechanic; -- often followed by at, in, or of; as, skillful at the organ; skillful in drawing. And they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentations to wailing. Amos v. 16.…

, of cotton or other fiber in a loose, untwisted state, produced by a carding machine and ready for the roving or slubbing which preceeds spinning.

Ready-made clothes; also, among seamen, clothing, bedding, and other furnishings.

One who sells slops, or ready-made clothes. See 4th Slop, 3.

A shop where slops. or ready-made clothes, are sold.

The manufacture of slops, or cheap ready-made clothing; also, such clothing; hence, hasty, slovenly work of any kind. No slopwork ever dropped from his [Carlyle's] pen. Froude.

Not ready; not prompt or quick; dilatory; sluggish; as, slow of speech, and slow of tongue. Fixed on defense, the Trojans are not slow To guard their shore from an expected foe. Dryden.

Capable of being smoked; suitable or ready to be smoked; as, smokable tobacco.

Inclined to, or adapted for, society; ready to unite with others; fond of companions; social. Society is no comfort to one not sociable. Shak. What can be uneasy to this sociable creature than the dry, pensive retirements of solitude South.

Ready or disposed to mix in friendly converse; companionable; sociable; as, a social person.

Moving with a quick, lively pace, or capable of so doing; dashing. Four spanking grays ready harnessed. G. Colman, the Younger.

Cash paid or ready for payment at once upon delivery of property purchased.

n of a man who is found at his standing in the forest, with a crossbow or a longbow bent, ready to shoot at a deer, or close by a tree with greyhounds in a leash ready to slip; -- one of the four presumptions that a man intends stealing the king's deer. Wharton.

brisk or active; to become dull or inactive; as, commerce stagnates; business stagnates. Ready-witted tenderness . . . never stagnates in vain lamentations while there is any room for hope. Sir W. Scott.