(See also PREPARATION.)

all systems go All set, everything’s ready, let ‘er roll. This expression denoting readiness for an undertaking gained frequency following the televised space flights of the 1960s and 70s, but its popularity soon waned. As originally used, it indicated that all of a spacecraft’s systems were functioning properly so the countdown could begin and the launching occur.

A-OK This recent (1960s) American version of A1 gained currency from television coverage of the space flights. Astronauts used the term to denote the condition of a spacecraft’s systems, or their own situation. In common usage its connotations are less of superiority and excellence than of preparedness or satisfactoriness.

Barkis is willin’ Availability, willingness, readiness; eagerness, desirousness. Charles Dickens gave us the phrase in David Copperfield. Barkis is enamored of the maid to David’s mother. On learning from the youth that she is not spoken for, he sends her the message, via David, that “Barkis is willin’.”

loaded for bear To be prepared for any possibility; to be armed and ready to fight; to have girded up one’s loins. This phrase originated during the westward movement, when a man was not considered ready for hunting unless he had enough ammunition to kill a bear. The expression, as used by E. G. Love, is cited in Webster’s Third:

The expression has recently acquired the additional meaning of being drunk, undoubtedly as a lengthening of the common term loaded ‘to be intoxicated.’

the noose is hanging Everything is set; everyone is ready and waiting. This expression alludes to the restive anticipation of a crowd awaiting a public hanging. The phrase has never gained widespread popularity.

raring to go Enthusiastically eager to begin; primed, psyched, ready. This American slang expression, of uncertain origin, has been in print since the early 1900s. Raring may be related to roaring or rearing (as of horses), but either connection is pure hypothesis.