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ripe

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Ripe, RIPE, ripé, and řípě

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /ɹaɪp/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪp

Etymology 1

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.

Alternative forms

Adjective

ripe (comparative riper, superlative ripest)

  1. (of fruits, vegetables, seeds etc.) Ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature.
    ripe grain
    ripe apples
    • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      So mayst thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop / Into thy mother's lap.
    • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
      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.
  2. (of foods) Advanced to the state of fitness for use; mellow.
    ripe cheese
    ripe wine
  3. (figuratively) Having attained its full development; mature; perfected.
    Synonym: consummate
    • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Life of King Henry the Eighth:
      He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 64:
      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: […]
    • 1895, Henry James, The Altar of the Dead:
      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.
    • 2001, “Elite”, performed by Deftones:
      When you're ripe
      You'll bleed out of control
  4. (archaic) Maturated or suppurated; ready to discharge. (said of sores, tumors, etc.)
  5. Ready for action or effect; prepared.
    • 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
      while things were just ripe for a war
    • 1775, Edmund Burke, Conciliation with America:
      I am not ripe to pass sentence on the gravest public bodies.
    • 1910, Theodore C. Williams, The Aeneid, translation of Aeneis by Virgil, Book IV Chapter 28:
      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.
    • 1988, Queensrÿche, Revolution Calling:
      But the time is ripe for changes. There's a growing feeling. That taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due
  6. (of a person, colloquial) Ready, willing, eager.
    • 1927, Bartlett Cormack, The Racket (play):
      I'm starting somethin' myself. I'm ripe to fight. It's this country air!
  7. Like ripened fruit in ruddiness and plumpness.
  8. (obsolete) Intoxicated.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:drunk
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
      Alonso: And Trinculo is reeling-ripe: where should they / Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them? / How cam'st thou in this pickle?
  9. (law) Of a conflict between parties, having developed to a stage where the conflict may be reviewed by a court of law.
    • 2004, Kenneth F. Warren, Administrative Law in the Political System‎, →ISBN, page 427:
      Problems emerge in judging whether a case is ripe, however, when contested general agency directives are issued that are not aimed at specific parties.
  10. Smelly: having a disagreeable odor.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:malodorous
    • 2004, Colum McCann, Fishing the Sloe-Black River‎, →ISBN, page 141:
      Dolores, giving her a bath yesterday, said she was a bit ripe under the armpits.
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

ripe (plural ripes)

  1. (agriculture) A fruit or vegetable which has ripened.
    • 1993, Paul J. Dosal, Doing Business with the Dictators‎, →ISBN, page 76:
      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.
Translations

Verb

ripe (third-person singular simple present ripes, present participle riping, simple past and past participle riped)

  1. To ripen or mature
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English ripe, from Latin ripa.

Noun

ripe (plural ripes)

  1. The bank of a river.

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

ripe (third-person singular simple present ripes, present participle riping, simple past and past participle riped)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To search; to rummage.

Etymology 4

An alteration of rife.

Adjective

ripe (not comparable)

  1. (proscribed, used with with) Rife
    • 2022 November 27, Edward Helmore, “‘Extinction is on the table’: Jaron Lanier warns of tech’s existential threat to humanity”, in The Guardian ‎:
      The current state of the tech industry is ripe with danger and poses an existential threat, he believes.

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