primed

1. 1
   adjective

   Made ready for use or action; fully prepared to perform or respond.

   After weeks of rehearsal, the cast was primed for opening night.

   The new recruits arrived primed for their first day of training.

   Similarready, prepared, set, poised

   Oppositeunprepared

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of prime.

   She primed the canvas with white before sketching the portrait.

   The campaign primed voters with months of targeted advertising.

   Note

   A regular past form: prime adds -d, and one spelling serves both she primed the pump and the pump had been primed. The verb behind it is mostly practical. It covers loading a gun's priming charge, coating wood with primer, filling a mechanism's chamber, even a boiler foaming over. The passive participle is the bridge to the "ready for action" adjective.

3. 3
   adjectivecolloquial

   Getting close to being drunk; feeling the early effects of alcohol.

   Half the wedding guests were primed before the speeches even began.

   He arrived already primed from drinks at an earlier party.

   Similartipsy, merry, buzzed

   Oppositesober

   Note

   Drink as preparation: the picture is of someone loaded up and ready, not yet over the edge. That boundary is the whole point, and Roger L. Weston's The Domino Coincidence (2012) draws it neatly: "Get Andrea well primed, but not drunk." Well primed is the natural intensified form. The word belongs to casual talk, so keep it out of careful writing.

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