mature
1. Brought by natural process to completeness of growth and development; fitted by growth and development for any function, action, or state, appropriate to its kind; full-grown; ripe. Now is love mature in ear. (Tennison) How shall I meet, or how accost, the sage, Unskilled in speech, nor yet mature of age ? (pope)
2. Completely worked out; fully digested or prepared; ready for action; made ready for destined application or use; perfected; as, a mature plan. This lies glowing, . . . And is almost mature for the violent breaking out. (Shak)
3. Of or pertaining to a condition of full development; as, a man of mature years.
4. Come to, or in a state of, completed suppuration.
Synonym: ripe, perfect, completed, prepared, digested, ready.
Mature, ripe. Both words describe fullness of growth. Mature brings to view the progressiveness of the process; ripe indicates the result. We speak of a thing as mature when thinking of the successive stayes through which it has passed; as ripe, when our attention is directed merely to its state. A mature judgment; mature consideration; ripe fruit; a ripe scholar.
Origin: L. Maturus; prob. Akin to E. Matin.
Dictionary > Mature
