Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Fully developed; mature: ripe peaches.
- adj. Resembling matured fruit, as in fullness.
- adj. Sufficiently advanced in preparation or aging to be used or eaten: ripe cheese.
- adj. Thoroughly matured, as by study or experience; seasoned: ripe judgment.
- adj. Advanced in years: the ripe age of 90.
- adj. Fully prepared to do or undergo something; ready: "By 1965 the republic was ripe for a coup” ( Alex Shoumatoff).
- adj. Sufficiently advanced; opportune: The time is ripe for great societal changes.
- adj. Exhibiting overtones of or references to sex; scatological: "The language on the stage was riper than anything I have heard in a lifetime of newspaper work” ( John Hughes).
- adj. Emitting a foul odor, especially body odor.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Ready for reaping, gathering, or using; brought to completion or perfection; mature: usually said of that which is grown and used for food: as, ripe fruit; ripe corn.
- Advanced to the state of being fit for use, or in the best condition for use: said of mutton, venison, game, cheese, beer, etc., which has acquired a peculiar and approved flavor by keeping.
- Resembling ripe fruit in ruddiness, juiciness, or plumpness.
- Full-grown; developed; finished; having experience, knowledge, or skill; equipped; accomplished; wise; clever: as, a ripe judgment; a ripe old age.
- Mature; ready for some change or operation, as an ovum for discharge from the ovary, an abscess for lancing, a cataract for extraction, or a fish for spawning.
- Ready for action or effect: often preceded by a specific word: as, bursting ripe, fighting ripe—that is, ready to burst, or to fight.
- Synonyms Mature, Ripe. See mature.
- To ripen; grow ripe; be matured. See ripen.
- To grow old.
- To mature; ripen; make ripe.
- To search (especially, pockets); rummage; hence, to plunder.
- To poke.
- To sweep or wipe clean; clean.
- To examine strictly.
- To break up (rough ground).
- n. A bank.
- n. Same as rip.
Wiktionary
- adj. Ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature; -- said of fruits, seeds, etc.; as, ripe grain.
- adj. Advanced to the state of fitness for use; mellow; as, ripe cheese; ripe wine.
- adj. figuratively Having attained its full development; mature; perfected; consummate.
- adj. archaic Maturated or suppurated; ready to discharge; -- said of sores, tumors, etc.
- adj. Ready for action or effect; prepared.
- adj. Like ripened fruit in ruddiness and plumpness.
- adj. obsolete Intoxicated.
- adj. law Of a conflict between parties, having developed to a stage where the conflict may be reviewed by a court of law.
- adj. Smelly: having a disagreeable odor.
- n. agriculture A fruit or vegetable which has ripened.
- v. To ripen or mature
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete The bank of a river.
- adj. Ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature; -- said of fruits, seeds, etc..
- adj. Advanced to the state of fitness for use; mellow.
- adj. Having attained its full development; mature; perfected; consummate.
- adj. Maturated or suppurated; ready to discharge; -- said of sores, tumors, etc.
- adj. Ready for action or effect; prepared.
- adj. Like ripened fruit in ruddiness and plumpness.
- adj. obsolete Intoxicated.
- v. obsolete To ripen; to grow ripe.
- v. obsolete To mature; to ripen.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. fully prepared or eager
- adj. far along in time
- adj. at the highest point of development especially in judgment or knowledge
- adj. most suitable or right for a particular purpose
- adj. fully developed or matured and ready to be eaten or used
Etymologies
- From Old English rīpe, from Proto-Germanic *rīpijaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rep- ‘to snatch’. Cognate with West Frisian ryp ("ripe"), Dutch rijp ("ripe"), German reif ("ripe"). Related to reap. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English rīpe. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Our word ripe began as an Old English word meaning “ready for reaping,” and like reap comes ultimately from an Indo-European root meaning “to cut.””
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
“He looked up and saw Gwa standing in the parlor doorway, the older, business-suited Gwa, his brow furrowed, his expression ripe with puzzlement.”
“The quality that makes this title ripe for reinvention is how it foreshadowed the technological explosions to come.”
“This revelation is totally appalling and unacceptable, and this shocking revelation, resulting from our subpoena, also provides compelling proof that social networking sites remain ripe with sexual predators.”
“No foreign army has ever conquered Afghanistan, it is open mountainous terrain ripe with caves and inaccessible valleys.”
“Getting things ripe is going to be an enormous challenge for reds especially.”
“The good comes through in ripe flavors (in both reds and whites).”
“Ideas ripe from the news by K.C. Ball – “Where do I not get an idea for a story?””
“Ideas ripe from the news « Flash Fiction Chronicles”
“But Betty Hunt (a name ripe for spoonerisms if ever there was one) put paid to that with her far left extremist activism.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ripe’.
-
CULI - wine-tasting adjectives
In this area of expertise nouns are frequently used as adjectives (almond, bacon, cider, diesel, fennel, fresh-cut hay, wool) or new adjectives are formed (appley, berrylike, citrusy, full-bodied, ...
acetic, acidic, aged, angular, appley, astringent, attractive, austere, berrylike, big, bitter, brawny and 511 more...
-
Describing the Taste of Foods
yummy, zesty, piquant, pungent, sharp, spicy, poignant, delicious, ambrosial, appetizing, delectable, heavenly and 194 more...
-
That STINKS!
Words having to do with terrible smells.
odor, putrid, stank, stink, smell, horrid, foul, putrecence, awful, rotting, garbage, toilet and 14 more...
-
Words We Dislike!
A list created for TRM, because there are certain words that we just kind of hate.
lover, fetus, smegma, saggy, coulomb, placenta, consumate, moist, sticky, bedroom suit, jiggles, blubber and 52 more...
-
GCI
spinster, maiden, happy-go-lucky, homonym, ill-at-ease, saw red, out of sorts, hot under the collar, taken aback, pen-names, alias, shoelaces and 378 more...
-
Real words that I love
Words that make me happy in my pants AND have a place in the dictionary.
enervate, efficacious, basilisk, minotaur, elfin, elephantine, schadenfreude, enigma, emasculate, acidic, appalling, ridiculous and 102 more...
-
colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
-
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
-
hauntedtapedeck's Words
hinterland, palimpsest, palisade, thaumaturgy, sangfroid, frisson, crick, patchwork, susurration, disconsolate, septum, elbow and 119 more...
-
merfee's Words
supple, dichotomy, relish, rhapsody, pneumonoultramicr..., embrace, ishmael, ebullient, recalcitrant, elegy, char, lugubrious and 522 more...
-
miss's list
inexorable, ripe, languid, fervor, polyandry, zygote, rhombus, binary, eunoia
-
the hotlist
short, sweet, epic, catchy, sassy, sexy & sizzling.
( personal list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/...zing, epic, win, fail, hot, warp, times, clip, onyx, wonky, pwn, leet and 1493 more...
-
How I feel about you:
The sound of my name spoken by your lips... I need a word for that.
love, lust, secret, honey, milky, touch, flesh, skin, neptune, kiss, wet, taste and 82 more...
-
List A
sorority, tantalize, untimely, deem, to wit, pliable, deteriorate, fortnight, Immaculate, susurration, bushed, stray and 56 more...
-
Niteowl's Words
flagrant, usurp, rectify, juxtapose, ingratiate, ambulate, discombobulated, periwinkle, disintermediation, luscious, zounds, perfidy and 49 more...
-
Words I absolutely loathe.
moist, supple, twelfth, secrete, birthday, y'all, whet, fungus, penal, chillax, cupboard, gyrate and 17 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ripe.

hernesheir Ripe: "In Wales a wooden hone, looking much like a small cricket bat, was called a ripe." - Sir Hugh Rhys Rankin, Radnorshire; The Countryman LIV(3), Autumn 1957, p. 571. Nov 2, 2009
artoparts http://www.ripe.net/ripe/maillists/index.html Jul 24, 2009