ripen
verb/ˈɹaɪpən/
Etymology From Middle English *ripenen, extended form of ripen, from Old English rīpian. 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”).
1
Of grain, fruit, flowers, etc., to grow ripe; to become mature.
- Grapes ripen in the sun.
- […] 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.1918, John Muir, chapter XII, in Steep Trails:
2
To approach or come to perfection.
- The acquaintance soon ripened into a warm attachment.1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 7:
3
To cause (something) to mature; to make ripe.
- The warm sun ripened the corn.
4
To mature; to fit or prepare; to bring to perfection.
- ripen the judgment
- When Faith and Love which parted from thee never Had ripen'd thy just soul to dwell with God1673, John Milton, When Faith and Love which parted from thee never:
1 more example
- 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.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:
- Derived terms
- antiripening, enripen, overripen, postripening, ripener, ripening, ripeningly, ripen up, underripened, unripened, unripening
- Related terms
- ripeness