ripe
Part of speech: adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: agriculture
business
law
lifestyle
Etymology: From Middle English ripe, rype, from Old English rīpe (“ripe, mature”), from Proto-West Germanic *rīpī, from Proto-Germanic *rīpijaz, *rīpiz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyb- (“to snatch”). Cognate with West Frisian ryp (“ripe”), Dutch rijp (“ripe”), German reif (“ripe”). Related to reap.
Inflected forms:
form: riper
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: ripest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: rype
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: ripes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: rype
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: ripes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: riping
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: riped
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: riped
pos: verb
tags: past
form: rype
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: Of a fruit, vegetable, seed, etc., ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature.
pos: adj
examples: ripe grain
ripe apples
So mayst thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop / Into thy mother's lap.
Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, […]. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.
gloss: Of a food, advanced to the state of fitness for use; mellow.
pos: adj
examples: ripe cheese
ripe wine
gloss: Having attained its full development; mature; perfected.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one.
And so may Place retain us still,
⁠And he the much-beloved again,
⁠A lord of large experience, train
To riper growth the mind and will: […]
She was a feature of that piety, but even at the ripe stage of acquaintance in which they occasionally arranged to meet at a concert or to go together to an exhibition she was not a feature of anything else.
When you're ripe
You'll bleed out of control
gloss: Of a sore, tumor, etc., maturated or suppurated; ready to discharge.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
gloss: Ready for action or effect; prepared.
pos: adj
examples: while things were just ripe for a war
I am not ripe to pass sentence on the gravest public bodies.
nor was the doom / of guilty deed, but of a hapless wight / to sudden madness stung, ere ripe to die, / therefore the Queen of Hades had not shorn / the fair tress from her forehead, nor assigned / that soul to Stygian dark.
But the time is ripe for changes. There's a growing feeling. That taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due
gloss: Of a person, ready, willing, eager.
pos: adj
tags: colloquial
examples: I'm starting somethin' myself. I'm ripe to fight. It's this country air!
gloss: Like ripened fruit in ruddiness and plumpness.
pos: adj
examples: Those happy smilets, / That played on her ripe lip.
He looked back once at the waving hands, the mother's glowing, ripe cheeks.
gloss: Intoxicated.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: Alonso: And Trinculo is reeling-ripe: where should they / Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them? / How cam'st thou in this pickle?
gloss: Of a conflict between parties, having developed to a stage where the conflict may be reviewed by a court of law.
pos: adj
examples: Problems emerge in judging whether a case is ripe, however, when contested general agency directives are issued that are not aimed at specific parties.
gloss: Smelly: having a disagreeable odor.
pos: adj
examples: His Majesty [a purple emperor butterfly] has rather peculiar tastes for so elegant a being. You just hang a piece of decidedly ripe meat anywhere near.
Dolores, giving her a bath yesterday, said she was a bit ripe under the armpits.
gloss: A fruit or vegetable which has ripened.
pos: noun
examples: When he realized that the ripes would not make it back to Selma, Zemurray offered a free bunch of bananas to any telegraph operator who notified local grocers that he was coming through with a shipment of bananas.
gloss: To ripen or mature.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: […] he answer'd, "Do not so; / Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio, / But stay the very riping of the time; / […]
Antonyms: unripe
Derived words: drop-ripe
firstripe
force-ripe
like a ripe plum
market-ripe
nonripe
overripe
rare-ripe
ripe for the picking
ripe for the plucking
ripeish
ripely
ripen
ripeness
ripe old age
rope-ripe
time is ripe
ultraripe
underripe
under-ripe
Translations: