readily

comparative readilier · comparative more readily · superlative readiliest · superlative most readily

1. Without unwillingness or hesitation; showing readiness.

   The suspect readily answered all questions the police officers asked him.

2. Without impediment, easily.

   readily available; readily achievable

   3 more examples

   Cantharidin, although readily decomposed by chemical agents, is so permanent in the body that it has been detected in the corpse of a cat eighty-four days after death.

   1885, Alexander Wynter Blyth, Poisons, Their Effects and Detection: A Manual for the Use of Analytical Chemists and Experts, volume I, New York: William Wood and Co., page 430

   Light does not pass through water nearly as readily as it passes through air, and in order to function efficiently, an animal that lives in the water must rely on other senses in addition to light.

   1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 28

   Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.

   2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845