adjective (riper, ripest)
1 (of fruit or crops) fully grown and ready to be eaten:
Pick the tomatoes before they get too ripe.
OPPUNRIPE
2 (of cheese or wine) having a flavour that has fully developed
SYNMATURE
3 (of a smell) strong and unpleasant
4 ~ (for sth) ready or suitable for sth to happen:
This land is ripe for development. * The conditions were ripe for social change. * Reforms were promised when the time was ripe.
ripeness noun [U]
IDIOMS
a / the ripe old age (of...) an age that is considered to be very old:
He lived to the ripe old age of 91.
