Ripe Meaning
/ɹaɪp/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjOf a fruit, vegetable, seed, etc., ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature.
adjOf a food, advanced to the state of fitness for use; mellow.
Sentence Examples
When the time is ripe, be bold and go for it! I'll stand by you.
The apples are not quite ripe.
I'm afraid the time is not yet ripe for it.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The banana turned yellow and soft, indicating it was finally ____ for eating.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The farmer waited until the tomatoes were fully ____ before picking them for the market.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"So mayst thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop / Into thy mother's lap."
— 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:
"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."
— 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
"He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one."
— 1623, William Shakespeare, The Life of King Henry the Eighth:
"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: […]"
— 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 64:
"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."
— 1895, Henry James, The Altar of the Dead:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The banana turned yellow and soft, indicating it was finally ____ for eating.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The farmer waited until the tomatoes were fully ____ before picking them for the market.