ripe

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

• rype (obsolete)

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 book number)”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →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], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XLI, 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.

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. Like ripened fruit in ruddiness and plumpness.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Those happy smilets, / That played on her ripe lip.

   • 1981, Daniel Curzon, Human Warmth & Other Stories‎, →ISBN, page 18:

     He looked back once at the waving hands, the mother's glowing, ripe cheeks.

7. (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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Alonso: And Trinculo is reeling-ripe: where should they / Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them? / How cam'st thou in this pickle?

8. (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.

9. 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

• unripe

Derived terms

Translations

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
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     […] he answer'd, "Do not so; / Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio, / But stay the very riping of the time; / […]

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English ripe, from Latin ripa.

Noun

ripe (plural ripes)

1. The bank of a river.

Related terms

• riparian

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.

Related terms

• rip

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.

Anagrams

• Peri, peri, peri-, pier, prie

Finnish

Etymology

From a sound-symbolic root rip- +‎ -e. The stem is also found in ripottaa (“to sprinle”), ripistä (“to crackle quietly”) and rippu (“nugget, pinch”). Cognates include Karelian ripe (“crumb; lodicule”) and rippuine (“(leftover) piece, scrap”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈripeˣ/,
• Rhymes: -ipe
• Syllabification^(key): ri‧pe

Noun

ripe

1. (chiefly in the plural) the leftovers, remains

Declension

Dialectal, dated:

Derived terms

References

Further reading

• “ripe”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03

Anagrams

• peri, peri-, repi

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁip/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: ripes, ripent

Verb

ripe

1. inflection of riper:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “ripe”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• péri, pire, prie, prié

Galician

Verb

ripe

1. inflection of ripar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈri.pe/
• Rhymes: -ipe
• Hyphenation: rì‧pe

Noun

ripe f

1. plural of ripa

Anagrams

• iper-, peri, peri-, perì

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Of unknown origin (noun, sense 1); from the same origin as rive (noun sense 2 and verb)

Noun

ripe f or m (definite singular ripa or ripen, indefinite plural riper, definite plural ripene)

1. (nautical) gunwale, edge

   Synonyms: båtripe, esing

2. a scratch

Alternative forms

• rip

Verb

ripe (imperative rip, present tense riper, passive ripes, simple past ripa or ripet or ripte, past participle ripa or ripet or ript, present participle ripende)

1. to scratch, score
2. to strike (a match)

References

• “ripe” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “ripe_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “ripe_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “ripe_3” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²riːpə/

Etymology 1

Unknown.

Alternative forms

• rip, ripa

Noun

ripe f (definite singular ripa, indefinite plural riper, definite plural ripene)

1. (nautical) gunwale, edge

   Synonyms: båtripe, esing

Etymology 2

Of the same origin as rive.

Alternative forms

• ripa

Verb

ripe (present tense ripar, past tense ripa, past participle ripa, passive infinitive ripast, present participle ripande, imperative ripe/rip)

1. to scratch, score
2. to strike (a match)

Noun

ripe f (definite singular ripa, indefinite plural riper, definite plural ripene)

1. a scratch

   Synonym: rip

References

• “ripe” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Anagrams

• pire, prei, reip

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *rīpī, from Proto-Germanic *rīpiz.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈriː.pe/

Adjective

rīpe

1. ripe
2. mature

Declension

Antonyms

• unrīpe

Derived terms

• rīpnes

Descendants

• English: ripe

Portuguese

Verb

ripe

1. inflection of ripar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative