ripen
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
From Middle English *ripenen, extended form of ripen. In the modern form, equivalent to ripe + -en (inchoative and factitive suffix). As in several other verbs, the alteration seems to have occurred during the time when the infinitive and plural ending -en was in the process of being lost (and was thus open to reinterpretation). The earliest attestation is deverbal Middle English ripening (“causing ripeness, ripening”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɹaɪpən/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -aɪpən
Verb
ripen (third-person singular simple present ripens, present participle ripening, simple past and past participle ripened)
- (intransitive) to grow ripe; to become mature (said of grain, fruit, flowers etc.)
- Grapes ripen in the sun.
- 1918, John Muir, chapter XII, in Steep Trails:
- […] the desert soil of the Great Basin is as rich in the elements that in rainy regions rise and ripen into food as that of any other State in the Union.
- (intransitive) To approach or come to perfection.
- 1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 7:
- The acquaintance soon ripened into a warm attachment.
- (transitive) To cause (something) to mature; to make ripe
- The warm sun ripened the corn.
- (transitive) To mature; to fit or prepare; to bring to perfection
- ripen the judgment
- 1673, John Milton, When Faith and Love which parted from thee never:
- When Faith and Love which parted from thee never
Had ripen'd thy just soul to dwell with God
- 1781, Edward Gibbon, “General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West”, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume III, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 631:
- But the decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatneſs. Proſperity ripened the principle of decay; the cauſes of deſtruction multiplied with the extent of conqueſt; and as ſoon as time or accident had removed the artificial ſupports, the ſtupendous fabric yielded to the preſſure of its own weight. The ſtory of its ruin is ſimple and obvious; and instead of enquiring why the Roman empire was deſtroyed, we ſhould rather be ſurprised that it had ſubſiſted ſo long.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to grow ripe
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to approach or come to perfection
to cause to mature; to make ripe
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Anagrams
Verb
ripen
- inflection of ripar:
Noun
ripen
Alternative forms
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