money that is in hand or may be obtained quickly or easily; cash
Word origin
[1870–75]This word is first recorded in the period 1870–75. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: Mafia, Victorian, billing, fifth wheel, washout
Examples of 'ready money' in a sentence
ready money
They will meet you in the park, lay down ready money, and take it away.
Frederick Marryat The Children of the New Forest (1847)
Always short of ready money, he sold the copyright of his first novels to publishers for a lump sum.
The Times Literary Supplement (2012)
Buying companies out of administration can be highly lucrative, but it requires nerves of steel and ready money.
Times, Sunday Times (2017)
From the point of view of a poor 21st-century freelance, it is hard to imagine a time when journalism was awash with ready money.
Times, Sunday Times (2017)
Gold crowns and dentures could then be traded for ready money when one of those whopping utility bills lands on your doormat.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
They have more ready money than they know what to do with, and we relieve them of it.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
This is the sound of money - serious, new, ready money - being spent on art at a rate that the world has never seen before.