ripe

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Fully grown and ready to be picked or eaten.

   These peaches are perfectly ripe and sweet.

2. 2
   adj

   Of cheese or wine, fully developed in flavour.

   The ripe cheese had a strong, rich taste.

3. 3
   adj

   Fully ready for something to happen.

   The conditions were ripe for change.

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.

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