Definition of "ripe"

So mayst thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop / Into thy mother's lap.

1667, John Milton, “(please specify the book number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, […]. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.

2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3

She was a feature of that piety, but even at the ripe stage of acquaintance in which they occasionally arranged to meet at a concert or to go together to an exhibition she was not a feature of anything else.

1895, Henry James, The Altar of the Dead

He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one.

1623, William Shakespeare, The Life of King Henry the Eighth

while things were just ripe for a war

1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]

I am not ripe to pass sentence on the gravest public bodies.

1775, Edmund Burke, Conciliation with America

nor was the doom / of guilty deed, but of a hapless wight / to sudden madness stung, ere ripe to die, / therefore the Queen of Hades had not shorn / the fair tress from her forehead, nor assigned / that soul to Stygian dark.

1910, Theodore C. Williams, The Aeneid, translation of Aeneis by Virgil, Book IV Chapter 28

But the time is ripe for changes. There's a growing feeling. That taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due

1988, Queensrÿche, Revolution Calling

Those happy smilets, / That played on her ripe lip.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]

He looked back once at the waving hands, the mother's glowing, ripe cheeks.

1981, Daniel Curzon, Human Warmth & Other Stories‎, page 18

Alonso: And Trinculo is reeling-ripe: where should they / Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them? / How cam'st thou in this pickle?

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i]

Problems emerge in judging whether a case is ripe, however, when contested general agency directives are issued that are not aimed at specific parties.

2004, Kenneth F. Warren, Administrative Law in the Political System‎, page 427

Dolores, giving her a bath yesterday, said she was a bit ripe under the armpits.

2004, Colum McCann, Fishing the Sloe-Black River‎, page 141

When he realized that the ripes would not make it back to Selma, Zemurray offered a free bunch of bananas to any telegraph operator who notified local grocers that he was coming through with a shipment of bananas.

1993, Paul J. Dosal, Doing Business with the Dictators‎, page 76

[…] he answer'd, "Do not so; / Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio, / But stay the very riping of the time; / […]

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene viii]

The current state of the tech industry is ripe with danger and poses an existential threat, he believes.

2022 November 27, Edward Helmore, “‘Extinction is on the table’: Jaron Lanier warns of tech’s existential threat to humanity”, in The Guardian ‎