ripeness
(ˈraɪpnɪs)
[f. ripe a. + -ness. So Fris. ripens.]
The state of being ripe in any sense; maturity, mellowness.
| c 1000 Lamb. Ps. cxviii. 147 On ripnysse [L. in maturitate]. a 1300 Cursor M. 18834 His hare like to þe nute brun, Quen it for ripnes fals dun. a 1300 E.E. Psalter cxviii. 147, I forcome in ripenes, and made crie. 1395 Purvey Remonstr. (1851) 135 Ripenesse of age and sadnesse of vertuis. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 434/2 Rypenesse, maturitas. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Form. R iij b, Whan they [remedies] fynde mater redy to rypenesse they do maturate. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark iv. 25 Therof sprang grasse, the whiche grewe, and waxed, vntyll it came to it ful ripenesse. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 253 By the exercise of translating,..our judgement inclineth to ripenesse. 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. viii. (1627) 124 All these kinds of Construing..may be used by schollers of ripenesse, and with much profit. 1682 Dryden Relig. Laici Pref., If a blessing in the ripeness of time was reserved for Japhet. 1732 Pope Hor. Sat. ii. ii. 28 Till a stench exhale Rank as the ripeness of a rabit's tail. 1786 Abercrombie Gard. Assist. 259 They attain maturity before mellow ripeness. 1833 Tennyson To J. S. 15 When love is grown To ripeness, that on which it throve Falls off. 1886 Manch. Exam. 13 Mar. 5/3 The artist was in the full vigour of his genius and ripeness of his experience. |