adverb
- by this or that time; previously; prior to or at some specified or implied time: When we came in, we found they had already arrived.
- now; so soon; so early: Is it noon already?
- Informal. (used as an intensifier to express exasperation or impatience): Let’s go already!
adverb
- by or before a stated or implied timehe is already here
- at a time earlier than expectedis it ten o’clock already?
c.1300, compound of all + ready (adj.); literally “fully ready.” Cf. Norwegian, Danish allerede “already.” Colloquial use in U.S. as a terminal emphatic (e.g. enough, already!) is attested from 1903, translating Yiddish shoyn, which is used in same sense. The pattern also is attested in Pennsylvania German and in South African.