ripen
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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to make or become ripe.
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to bring or come to maturity, the proper condition, etc.; mature.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ripen
Explanation
When fruit becomes ripe and ready to eat, it ripens. Tomatoes will ripen after you pick them, becoming darker red and more juicy. You can use ripen to talk about the maturing process of all fruits, and some vegetables — apples, peppers, and corn all need to ripen before they're at the perfect, delicious state for being eaten. Figuratively, you can also talk about people this way: "She is really starting to ripen as an actor!" Before ripen was coined around 1560, the verb was ripe, as in, "When the avocados ripe, I'll make guacamole."
Vocabulary lists containing ripen
Vocabulary from Readings 4, Unit 1
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"In Response to Executive Order 9066"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ripen, ye Custard Apples, round and fair, Practise your songs, O Bulbuls, on the bough, Surely some sweeter sweetness haunts the air; Maybe His feet draw near us, even now!
From Last Poems by Hope, Laurence
Ye floods of purple pour in state, Ripen the morn, and roll men's blood along!
From Contemporary Belgian Poetry Selected and Translated by Jethro Bithell by Various
That they were skilfully handled is evident from the fact that a contemporaneous report mentions a trip from Ripen in Jutland to Amsterdam as having been successfully made in two days.
From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 06 (From Barbarossa to Dante) by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)
May ye swell, twin-berries tender, Juicier far,—and with more splendour Ripen, and more speedily!
From The Poems of Goethe Translated in the original metres by Bowring, Edgar Alfred
The Cumulative Vote, the second of the experiments referred to by Lord Ripen, although by no means free from serious defects, has also secured the object for which it was designed—the representation of minorities.
From Proportional Representation A Study in Methods of Election by Humphreys, John H.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
