immature, a.
(ɪməˈtjʊə(r))
[ad. L. immātūrus untimely, unripe, f. im- (im-2) + mātūrus mature.]
1. Occurring before its time; untimely, premature. (Almost always said of death.) Obs. or arch.
| 1548 Hall Chron., Rich. III 48 b, Ye sodein and immature death of his wife. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iv. vii. (1651) 163 Prince Henries immature death. 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 7/1 The whole Frame..falls into dangerous Distempers and immature old Age. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. I. 215 The design being prevented by his immature death. |
2. Not mature; not arrived at the perfect or complete state; unripe. a. Of fruits. Now rare.
| 1599 A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 5/2 Water of immature wallenuttes. 1692 Tryon Good House-w. xiv. (ed. 2) 104 Many other Fruits are gathered and eaten whilst they are immature. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Cider, Cider..made of green immature Fruit. |
b. Of other things, in respect of physical growth.
| 1641 G. Sandys Paraphr. Song Sol. viii. iii, We have a Sister immature. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 277 The Earth..in the Womb as yet Of Waters, Embryon immature involv'd. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. ix. (1879) 201 The young cells..contain quite immature polypi. 1880 Günther Fishes 176 Immature males do not differ externally from the old female. |
c. Of things immaterial.
| [1635 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Banish'd Virg. 76 This project..being..immature in the fertile soyle of his braine⁓plot.] 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. iv. 71 The green and immature Essays of early Writers. 1701 Rowe Amb. Step-Moth. v. i, As yet the Secret Is immature. 1823 De Quincey Lett. Educ. v. (1860) 111 Presented to the immaturest student. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iv. viii. 451 In these immature centuries. |
d. Ophthalm. Of a progressive cataract: characterized by a marked but incomplete opacity, with the lens usually swollen and its superficial layers still largely transparent.
| 1850 B. E. Brodhurst Of Crystalline Lens & Cataract 57 The terms mature, and immature,..are well adapted to express the stage of progress at which any particular cataract may have arrived. 1904 L. W. Fox Dis. Eye xii. 311 The special difficulties..in removing a cataract before maturity are that parts of the cortex, clear at the time of operation, will remain adherent to the capsule of the lens, and later undergo the process of opacification... Some operators, however, operate on immature cataracts, washing out the tenacious material with a syringe. 1970 A. H. Keeney Ocular Exam. ix. 143/2 Early (incipient or immature) cataracts cause changes in refraction..marked by increasing myopia at an age when refraction should either be stable or show increasing hyperopia. |
e. Of a soil: not having a fully developed profile. Of a soil profile or its parts: not fully developed.
| 1926 C. F. Marbut in Tansley & Chipp Study of Vegetation vii. 139 In every region there are hillside soils as well as alluvial and colluvial deposits in which the texture profile will not be well developed because of the short time during which the material has been subjected to the forces of soil development. Such soils are immature or have imperfectly developed profiles. 1927 N. M. Comber Introd. Sci. Study Soil xiii. 139 Glinka divides all soils in the first instance into two groups:—(1) Immature or endodynamomorphic soils, in which the processes of formation have not had full play..(2) Mature or ektodynamomorphic soils, in which the processes of formation have had full play. 1963 D. W. & E. E. Humphries tr. Termier's Erosion & Sedimentation vi. 138 When erosion is greater than the rate of formation, the soil is immature. 1968 R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Geomorphol. 273 These soils (lithosols) are immature and without soil profiles. |