ripen
Of grain, fruit, flowers, etc., to grow ripe; to become mature.
Example
“Grapes ripen in the sun.”
Other meanings
To approach or come to perfection.
To cause (something) to mature; to make ripe.
“The warm sun ripened the corn.”
Synonyms
- mature
Related words
- enripen
- underripened
- unripened
- antiripening
- postripening
- ripeningly
- unripening
- overripen
- ripening
- ripener
- ripen up
Word history
From Old English "rīpian".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “ripen” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.