mature

adjective, verb

HELPNOTE maturer is occasionally used instead of more mature sensible 1 (of a child or young person) behaving in a sensible way, like an adult: Jane is very mature for her age. * a mature and sensible attitude OPPIMMATURE fully grown 2 (of a person, a tree, a bird or an animal) fully grown and developed: sexually mature * a mature oak / eagle / elephant OPPIMMATURE wine / cheese 3 developed over a period of time to produce a strong, rich flavour no longer young 4 used as a polite or humorous way of saying that sb is no longer young: clothes for the mature woman * a man of mature years work of art 5 created late in an artist's life and showing great understanding and skill insurance policy 6 (business) ready to be paid maturely adverb IDIOMS on mature reflection / consideration (formal) after thinking about sth carefully and for a long time

become fully grown 1 [V] to become fully grown or developed: This particular breed of cattle matures early. * Technology in this field has matured considerably over the last decade. become sensible 2 [V] to develop emotionally and start to behave like a sensible adult: He has matured a great deal over the past year. develop skill 3 [V] ~ (into sth) to fully develop a particular skill or quality: She has matured into one of the country's finest actresses. wine / cheese 4 [V, VN] if wine, cheese, etc. matures or is matured, it develops over a period of time to produce a strong, rich flavour insurance policy 5 [V] (business) to reach the date when it must be paid: She has a number of investments that mature at the end of the year.