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RIPE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Far along in time
Example:
the ripe age of 90
Synonyms:
advanced; ripe
Classified under:
Similar:
late (being or occurring at an advanced period of time or after a usual or expected time)
Sense 2
Meaning:
At the highest point of development especially in judgment or knowledge
Example:
a ripe mind
Classified under:
Similar:
mature (characteristic of maturity)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Fully developed or matured and ready to be eaten or used
Example:
full-bodied mature wines
Synonyms:
mature; ripe
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
aged; ripened (of wines, fruit, cheeses; having reached a desired or final condition; ('aged' pronounced as one syllable))
mellow; mellowed (having a full and pleasing flavor through proper aging)
overripe (too ripe and beginning to turn soft)
Antonym:
green (not fully developed or mature; not ripe)
Derivation:
ripeness (the state of being ripe)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Most suitable or right for a particular purpose
Example:
the time is ripe for great sociological changes
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
opportune (suitable or at a time that is suitable or advantageous especially for a particular purpose)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Fully prepared or eager
Example:
the colonists were ripe for revolution
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
ready (completely prepared or in condition for immediate action or use or progress)
Context examples:
John was requested to order home a dozen or so of little pots and an extra quantity of sugar, for their own currants were ripe and were to be attended to at once.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Acetaldehyde is found in various plants, ripe fruits, vegetables, cigarette smoke, gasoline and diesel exhaust.
(Acetaldehyde, NCI Thesaurus)
Efforts to discover and develop drugs to combat cancer and drug and alcohol addiction and methods of bioengineering to repair tissues are ripe for discovery.
(New Avenues for the Development of Therapeutics, NCI Thesaurus)
It was only upon my representing to him that I had given a promise that The Adventure of the Second Stain should be published when the times were ripe, and pointing out to him that it is only appropriate that this long series of episodes should culminate in the most important international case which he has ever been called upon to handle, that I at last succeeded in obtaining his consent that a carefully guarded account of the incident should at last be laid before the public.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The night however, was far gone into the morning—the morning, black as it was, was nearly ripe for the conception of the day—the inmates of my house were locked in the most rigorous hours of slumber; and I determined, flushed as I was with hope and triumph, to venture in my new shape as far as to my bedroom.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
To fight when they were flushed with wine and ripe for mischief—above all, to fight before so select a company with the Prince at the ringside, was a chance which did not often come in their way.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The original English grain unit based on the mass of a ripe grain barleycorn was larger the corresponding grain units of France and other European nations which were based on the weight of the smaller wheat grain.
(Grain, NCI Thesaurus)
They went across divides in summer blizzards, shivered under the midnight sun on naked mountains between the timber line and the eternal snows, dropped into summer valleys amid swarming gnats and flies, and in the shadows of glaciers picked strawberries and flowers as ripe and fair as any the Southland could boast.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
The nuts are quite ripe now, said Chanticleer to his wife Partlet, suppose we go together to the mountains, and eat as many as we can, before the squirrel takes them all away.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
It was his desire and request, however, that you should not remain in the cloisters, but should at a ripe age return into the world.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
