prepare
/prɪˈpɛː
/verb [with object]
1Make (something) ready for use or consideration: prepare a brief summary of the article...
- The research team is currently preparing manuscripts for consideration.
- Officials are currently preparing advice for consideration by the Government in the very near future.
- As a result of those select committee considerations, reports are prepared that are tabled in the House.
Synonyms
make ready, get ready, put together, draw up, produce, arrange, develop, assemble, construct, compose, edit, devise, work out, think up, conceive, formulate, concoct, fashion, work up, lay
1.1 (as adjective prepared) Created in advance; pre-planned: the spokesman was reading a prepared statement...
- "Adolescents are not passive," the study author and sociology professor said in a prepared statement.
- The country's counter-terror approach needs to be "more layered, networked and resilient to make it smarter, and more adaptive," her prepared text said.
- On this special occasion, the trimaran's skipper had prepared a few words in German for the local audience.
1.2Make (food or a meal) ready for cooking or eating: she was busy preparing lunch...
- Without a refrigerator or stove, and perhaps only a hot plate to prepare meals, food choices are expensive and generally not very nutritious.
- The Meath man even showed his cooking skills when he prepared a meal for the judges in the early hours of Monday morning.
- Reading food labels and preparing your own meals with herbs and spices instead of salt can make a big difference.
Synonyms
cook, make, get, put together, assemble, muster, dish up, concoct, blend, infuse, brew
informal fix, rustle up
British informal knock up
1.3Make (a substance) by a chemical reaction or series of reactions: alkanes may be prepared by the removal of carbon dioxide from the corresponding carboxylic acid...
- Formic acid is prepared commercially by heating carbon monoxide and sodium hydroxide to form sodium formate.
- He continued to work productively, analysing the chemistry of chlorine bleaches and preparing hypochlorous acid and chlorine monoxide for the first time.
- His ink was prepared from the soot of lamp black mixed with water.
2Make (someone) ready or able to do or deal with something: schools should prepare children for life [no object]: she took time off to prepare for her exams...
- However none of those were able to prepare me for dealing with change properly.
- I was not prepared for it and I couldn't really deal with it.
- What we weren't prepared for was to get people out of the city who couldn't get out of the city on their own.
Synonyms
get ready, make preparations, arrange things, make provision, get everything set, take the necessary steps, do the necessary, lay the groundwork, do the spadework, gear oneself up, gird up one's loins, fit oneself out, kit oneself out, rig oneself out, provide, arm oneself;
face up to
informal psych oneself up
train, get into shape, practise, exercise, warm up;
get ready, get set
study, work, do preparation, revise, do homework
British informal swot
instruct, teach, educate, coach, train, tutor, inculcate, groom, discipline, drill, prime, brief, guide, direct, put in the picture
brace, make ready, tense, steel, steady, buttress, strengthen, fortify
literary gird
ready, set, all set, equipped, primed, in a fit state;
waiting, available, on hand, fixed, poised, in position
2.1 (be prepared to do something) Be willing to do something: I wasn’t prepared to go along with that...
- Many of those questioned asked to remain anonymous but others were prepared to give their names.
- That they were prepared to put themselves through such discomfort is an indication of their strength of feeling.
- They now needed evidence that local authorities were prepared to adopt the same approach.
Synonyms
willing, ready, disposed, predisposed, inclined, favourably inclined, of a mind, minded, in the mood, agreeable
3 Music (In conventional harmony) lead up to (a discord) by means of preparation.
Derivatives
preparer
- This is true even if your friend is a professional actress who relishes the opportunity to play the role of a helpful tax preparer.
- Different financial statement preparers may develop different methods of determining fair value, resulting in similar financial instruments being valued differently.
- Most of the workers, such as nursing assistants or food preparers, ‘have no educational credentials beyond a high school diploma,’ the authors found.
Origin
Late Middle English: from French préparer or Latin praeparare, from prae 'before' + parare 'make ready'.
apparatus from early 17th century:
This is a Latin word, from apparare ‘make ready for’, from parare ‘make ready’. Other words going back to parare include disparate (Late Middle English), ‘prepared apart’; pare (Middle English); prepare (Late Middle English) ‘prepare in advance’; and separate (Late Middle English) from se- ‘apart’ and parare.