mature
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: note: pour–poor merger, yod-coalescence
ipa: /məˈt͡ʃɔː(ɹ)/
note: without the pour–poor merger, yod-coalescence
ipa: /məˈt͡ʃʊə(ɹ)/
note: without the pour–poor merger, without the yod-coalescence
ipa: /məˈtjʊə(ɹ)/
ipa: [mət͡ʃoː]
ipa: /məˈt͡ʃʊ(ə)ɹ/
ipa: /məˈt͡ʃɝ/
ipa: /məˈt(j)ʊəɹ/
rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
Forms: form: matures
form: maturing
form: matured
form: matured
Etymology: From Middle English maturen, from Middle French maturer (“to mature”), from Latin mātūrō.
Senses: examples: text: […] his originality, in the mean time, was maturing to perfection.
ref: 1797, Mr. Harrison, “A Biographical Sketch of Hogarth”, in The Comick Magazine, volume 1, London: Harrison and Co., page 3:
synonyms: develop
grow
progress
ripen
glosses: To proceed toward maturity: full development or completion (either of concrete or of abstract things, e.g. plans, judgments, qualities).
examples: text: […] Trees […] have alwayes Fruit upon them, ripe, or preparing to mature;
ref: 1670, John Evelyn, chapter 35, in Sylva, or, A Discourse of Forest-trees, London, page 246:
synonyms: ripen
ripen up
qualifier: especially fruit
glosses: To attain maturity, to become mature or ripe.
raw_tags: of food
examples: text: […] But these thoughts
Full Counsel must mature:
ref: 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, book 1, lines 659–660:
text: […] much it now
Imports they should be still deceiv’d, till time
Matures our enterprize;
ref: 1768, John Hoole, Cyrus: A Tragedy, London: T. Davies, act I, page 12:
text: […] I did not interrupt her, I was so busy maturing a plan I had had in my mind for some days […]
ref: 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford, New York: Harper, Chapter 13, p. 262,:
text: […] the long clean groove of her upper lip was ready to go into motion, as if she were going to break her silence with something momentous and long-matured; explain love to me, perhaps.
ref: 1953 September 18, Saul Bellow, chapter VIII, in The Adventures of Augie March […], New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC, page 143:
glosses: To bring (something) to maturity, full development, or completion.
examples: text: […] a ship well freighted with the stores
The sun matures on India’s spicy shores,
ref: 1782, William Cowper, “Charity”, in Poems, London: J. Johnson, page 202:
text: There are certain vegetables like the tomato which require a long period to mature the fruit, and these must be started several weeks before the frosts have passed.
ref: 2009, Hugh Findlay, Practical Gardening, Vegetables and Fruits:
synonyms: ripen
glosses: To make (something, e.g. fruit) ripe or mature.
synonyms: age
develop
grow up
glosses: To proceed toward or become mature or full-grown, either physically or psychologically; to gain experience or wisdom with age.
raw_tags: of a person
examples: text: Then Tom shall have his kite, and Fan new dollies,
Till time matures them for important follies.
ref: 1776, Hannah Cowley, The Runaway, London: Prologue:
text: […] what I most wanted was time to grow up. The war had not matured me;
ref: 1970, Robertson Davies, chapter 2, in Fifth Business, part 6, Toronto: Macmillan, page 103:
synonyms: word: age
word: antiquate
word: eld
word: mature
word: obsolete
glosses: To make (someone) mature.
examples: text: When the bond matures, the full face value is payable to its bearer.
topics: business
finance
glosses: To reach the date when payment is due.
Synonyms: maturate
Derived terms: maturable
mature up
unmaturing