readymade

American  

[red-ee-meyd] / ˈrɛd iˈmeɪd /

Or ready-made

noun

1. an everyday manufactured object, as a bottle rack, a snow shovel, a urinal, or a comb, that may by the creative act of selection and designation by an artist attain status as a work of art: associated almost exclusively with the aesthetic activities of Marcel Duchamp during the period 1915 to 1917.

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Etymology

Origin of readymade

< French < English; term introduced by Duchamp in 1915

Example Sentences

It also carries with it a sort of readymade profundity.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 11, 2025

On view at the museum through November of next year, the readymade sculpture has been imaginatively altered by Saar.

From New York Times • May 8, 2024

AI is far from the point where the "push of a button" generates "everything readymade", say Keitan Yadav and Harry Hingorani who run Redchillies.vfx.

From BBC • Dec. 18, 2023

You can also build a cage trellis, or use a readymade trellis, as long as it is large enough to accommodate a mature tomato plant and you keep pruning the plant.

From Salon • Jul. 7, 2022

It was a fine readymade one he’d ordered years ago when rich Mr. Sheffield was thought to be dying and didn’t.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns