Meaning of this phrase

It is an old nautical term, meaning that a ship has all its crew on board and is ready to sail. Now we can use it as an idiom meaning that we are ready to do / start something.

Dear Abbie,

Is this usage correct : "The new factory is manned and ready." OR "The new factory is manned and ready for operation". Which one is correct?

Praveen.

Your second sentence is better. It's more formal.

Dear Abbie,

Are the following sentences employing correct usage of 'manned and ready'?

* The race is manned and ready.
* The entrance exam hall is manned and ready.
* The cell phone competition is manned and ready. ( To mean the competition has started. I think it doesn't sound good).

Praveen.

I don't think any of these is a really good example; certainly 1 & 2 don't really make sense, as neither a race nor a competition can be "manned".

"Manned" is a transitive verb meaning 'to supply with men' (or nowadays, people).

You could say "The new shop was manned and ready (to open)" meaning that the shop was full staffed and everything was ready for the opening.

Thanks Abbie,

In the first sentence I tried to mean : "The participants are in their position and the race is ready to start". So, the race is "supplied with men".

"The race is manned and ready to start". Without the idom it will be better : "The race is ready to start"!

Praveen.

Yes, Praveen. It just doesn't sound right. I think you can only 'man' a place, not an event.
"The race is ready to start" is good.

Got it right.

Thankyou Abbie.

Praveen.

Dear Parveen,
Though we can say "The dinner is ready to serve.", I think we do not say "The race is ready to start." We can say "The competitors are ready to start.", or "The race is going to start." instead. But again, I am not a native speaker ....!
BTW, it was interesting to see that you've posted 57 messages on your first day of joining the forum! Keep up the good work,
Cheers,

LanguageLover,
I wouldn't say "the dinner is ready to serve"...
I'd say "Dinner's ready", here there should be no "the" before dinner, and moreover it looks as if a dinner were ready to serve something!