adv. [orig. phr. ALL adv. = fully, + READY.]
† 1. adj. (pred. or compl.) Fully prepared, in a state of complete preparation. Obs.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1117. Wanne þay come to þe castel ȝate; Þe porter alredi was þer-ate.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s T., 169 (Harl. MS.). Al redy was his answer [other texts and ready].
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XXIX. And founde the basket at the grounde already.
¶ This sense can still be traced in
1584. Powel, Lloyd’s Cambr., 21. A populous countrie Alreadie furnished with inhabitants.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 594. The three Scotch regiments were already in England.
1865. R. W. Dale, Jew. Temple, viii. (1877), 86. The preparations … are already around us.
2. adv. Beforehand, in anticipation; previously to some specified time; by this time, thus early.
[Not in Wyclif.]
c. 1391. Chaucer, Astrol., II. § 11. The howres of the clokke ben departid by 15 degrees al-redy.
1495. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de Worde), I. I. 5 b/2. Thou arte alle redy a deuyll like to us.
1526. Tindale, Rom. iii. 9. We have all redy proved.
1541. Elyot, Image Govt., 96. Any more quietnesse, than I haue all readie.
1611. Bible, Eccles. i. 10. It hath beene already of olde time.
1623. Heming & Condell, in Shaks. Cent. Praise, 145. These Playes have had their triall alreadie.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 140. ¶ 2. I have lost so much time already.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 25. 177. The sunbearns had already fallen upon the mountain.
¶ Sometimes united by a hyphen to participles.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. xi. 92. The first dim rudiments and already-budding germs of a nobler Era.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., II. ix. § 77 (1875), 231. Already-fractured portions of the Earth’s crust.
