Ready-made describes something that's already finished and available to use immediately, without any extra work or preparation required. When you buy a ready-made costume for Halloween, you don't have to sew it yourself: you just take it out of the package and put it on. Ready-made meals at the grocery store are already cooked and just need heating.

The term became especially important in the art world starting around 1913, when French artist Marcel Duchamp began displaying ordinary manufactured objects as art. By choosing everyday objects and calling them art, Duchamp challenged people to think differently about what art could be. This idea suggested that choosing and presenting something could be just as creative as making it by hand.

Today, we use ready-made to describe anything premade for convenience: ready-made picture frames, ready-made excuses, ready-made furniture that you don't have to assemble. The opposite would be custom-made or handmade, things created specifically for you or crafted from scratch. Ready-made solutions save time but might not fit your needs perfectly, while custom solutions take longer but match exactly what you want.