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Meaning of prepare in English:

prepare

Pronunciation /prɪˈpɛː/

See synonyms for prepare

Translate prepare into Spanish

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.’
- ‘The council also prepared its own development brief for the site to guide companies seeking planning permission.’
- ‘The council had prepared numerous reports and considered many of the possible consequences of closure.’
- ‘If you're going to educate students and prepare them for society, part of what you consider is the environment they're educated in.’
- ‘They apparently were allowed to prepare brief messages to family members, and that message was relayed to us by the Navy.’
- ‘Justices adjourned the case so the youth offending team can prepare a pre-sentence report considering all possible sentences.’
- ‘They have been training with ex-professional coaches who prepared them for their trip of a lifetime.’
- ‘He includes instructions for preparing each item.’
- ‘Current teachers identified a variety of benefits of working at camp in preparing them for teaching.’
- ‘We can talk about responsibility of educating our children and preparing them for a better future.’
- ‘The rest receive a vocational education that prepares them for a specialized, high-paying profession that allows them to be respected and valued for who they are and what they do.’
- ‘Often, they do not even want to be bothered about the setting or the decor prepared by their art directors.’
- ‘As part of this, children are guided to prepare craft sheets and helped by teachers to understand shapes, colours, animals, birds and insects.’
- ‘Last week Cabinet instructed Crown Law to prepare an amendment reversing the decision in time for the current session of Parliament.’
- ‘I have a talk in San Diego this afternoon, and before then I have to prepare my overheads and teach my copyright class.’
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
View synonyms
1. 1.1Make (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.’
  ‘The boxes are tailored for those who want to use the food to prepare home meals or for those who use it in juicers.’
  ‘Ticket holders have access to several stations where chefs prepare the food in woks and large sauté pans.’
  ‘She had been working all day in the kitchens, preparing food, cleaning dishes and had felt the whip of the slave master more than once.’
  ‘While they sang and played, the mother was busy in the kitchen preparing food for the night's dinner.’
  ‘The food is prepared as for a meal and is then analyzed for pesticide residue and toxic chemicals.’
  ‘Your challenge is to sell them on the food they hate by preparing that ingredient in ways that might convert them.’
  ‘She was going to be my adopted mother and taught me quite a few things, such as how to prepare food, cook rice, etc.’
  ‘Dishes were prepared in vast cooking pots for the hundreds of inmates and served in a buffet in a huge dining hall, he said.’
  ‘Are your food preferences simple or do you prepare meals with many ingredients that must be stored?’
  ‘We intend to use the surface for cutting, chopping and preparing food for serving and cooking.’
  ‘Maria and Nova were busy preparing their food while Hero was helping his dad grill some fish and meat.’
  ‘The servants, dressed in black, were busy preparing the meal.’
  ‘Natalia and Kevin busied themselves preparing the mid-day meal.’
  ‘Telli's sister, his grandmother and two aunts were busy round the fireplace preparing the night's meal.’
  ‘At Tian Tian Wang, all food has been prepared, marinated and cooked with different types of tea, in accordance with the nature of the food.’
  ‘For lunch, Amy prepared a delicious meal that was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.’
  cook, make, get, put together, assemble, muster, dish up, concoct, blend, infuse, brew
  View synonyms
2. 1.2Make (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.’
  ‘The acetins are derivatives of glycerol that are prepared by heating glycerol with acetic acid.’
  ‘Reverse osmosis is used to prepare drinking water from sea water.’
  ‘There is often more than one synthetic route for preparing a desired chemical.’
  ‘Here the primary components including nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous are prepared.’
  ‘Davy went on to apply his method for preparing sodium to the extraction of potassium, calcium, and other active metals.’
  ‘Primary amides are prepared by reacting ammonia or amines with acid chlorides, anhydrides, or esters.’
  ‘Heavy water can be prepared by the prolonged electrolysis of water.’
  ‘He used this method to prepare sodium, potassium, calcium, and other elements for the first time.’
  ‘Large vats of very caustic chemicals are used to prepare the metal.’
  ‘It can be prepared chemically and is obtained by mining and evaporating water from seawater and brines.’
  ‘Karle's husband, Jerome, was tasked with preparing plutonium metal directly from crude plutonium oxide. The work was dangerous.’
  ‘Solar cells, usually made from specially prepared silicon, act like a battery when exposed to light.’
2Make (someone) ready or able to do or deal with something.
‘schools should prepare children for life’
- ‘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.’
- ‘So I have very fond memories of Haxby School and the excellent way in which I was prepared for future years.’
- ‘We trained really well on Tuesday and we are prepared for whatever they throw at us.’
- ‘The plot twist, inspired by O. Henry, is made believable, because you are prepared for it…’
- ‘Some of us are prepared for this type of pressure and decision.’
- ‘I was fully prepared for the agonising stench as I entered the wet tropics zone of the Princess of Wales Conservatory, but I was disappointed.’
- ‘So with your guide in hand and August 13 just around the corner, you are now prepared for the most intense two weeks in sports television.’
- ‘But I was not prepared for what I found when I got to Washington and worked there.’
- ‘‘I was prepared for the worst, and if it was bad news I was ready for it,’ said Margaret.’
- ‘But she was not prepared for the treatment meted out by the villagers, once her candidature became public knowledge.’
- ‘I don't know how I could have expected anything else in the circumstances, but somehow I wasn't prepared for this.’
- ‘But we aren't prepared for that first grand view of Lake Powell, a vast man-made reservoir straddling Utah and Arizona.’
- ‘As we feared, she was not prepared for just how long you have to sit in a car hurtling at great speeds to cross even a fraction of the United States.’
ready, set, all set, equipped, primed, in a fit state
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, rig oneself out, provide, arm oneself
train, get into shape, practise, exercise, warm up
study, work, do preparation, revise, do homework
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
View synonyms
1. 2.1be prepared to do somethingBe 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.’
  ‘The council were prepared to reconsider granting him a permit at a later date.’
  ‘Market forces were such that there was a shortage of train drivers and people were prepared to pay higher wages to find them.’
  ‘The visitors were prepared to play a positive game, often spurning penalty kicks to throw the ball around.’
  ‘The bidder was to name the fee that they were prepared to pay for the licence.’
  ‘To many, his ambition was greater than many in the party were prepared to support.’
  ‘We told them what was in his contract and that we were prepared to be flexible.’
  ‘They knew that peace would come at a price, but were prepared to pay it.’
  willing, ready, disposed, predisposed, inclined, favourably inclined, of a mind, minded, in the mood, agreeable
  View synonyms
3Music
(in conventional harmony) lead up to (a discord) by means of preparation.