Ripe vs Rife - What's the difference?
ripe | rife |
Ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature; -- said of fruits, seeds, etc.; as, ripe grain.
* Milton
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= Advanced to the state of fitness for use; mellow; as, ripe cheese; ripe wine.
(figuratively) Having attained its full development; mature; perfected; consummate.
* Shakespeare
(archaic) Maturated or suppurated; ready to discharge; -- said of sores, tumors, etc.
Ready for action or effect; prepared.
* Addison
* Burke
*
Like ripened fruit in ruddiness and plumpness.
* Shakespeare
* {{quote-book, year=1981, author=Daniel Curzon, title=Human Warmth & Other Stories, isbn=0912516542
passage=He looked back once at the waving hands, the mother's glowing, ripe cheeks.}}
(obsolete) Intoxicated.
* 1611, (William Shakespeare), , Act V, Scene 1,
(legal) Of a conflict between parties, having developed to a stage where the conflict may be reviewed by a court of law.
* {{quote-book, year=2004, author=Kenneth F. Warren, title=Administrative Law in the Political System, isbn=0813341167
passage=Problems emerge in judging whether a case is ripe , however, when contested general agency directives are issued that are not aimed at specific parties.}}
Smelly: having a disagreeable odor.
* {{quote-book, year=2004, author=Colum McCann, title=Fishing the Sloe-Black River, isbn=0312423381
, passage=Dolores, giving her a bath yesterday, said she was a bit ripe under the armpits.}}
(agriculture) A fruit or vegetable which has ripened.
* {{quote-book, year=1993, page=76, author=Paul J. Dosal, title=Doing Business with the Dictators, isbn=0842024395
, passage=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.}}
To ripen or mature
* 1594 , , Act II Scene VIII,
Widespread, common (especially of unpleasant or harmful things).
* Arbuthnot
* Milton
* 1900 , Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams'', ''Avon Books , (translated by James Strachey) pg. 170:
* 2013 , Daniel Taylor, Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic climbs highest to sink Benfica'' (in ''The Guardian , 15 May 2013)[http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/may/15/benfica-chelsea-europa-league]
Abounding; present in large numbers, plentiful.
(obsolete) Having power; active; nimble.
* J. Webster
Plentifully, abundantly.
In obsolete terms the difference between ripe and rife
is that ripe is intoxicated while rife is having power; active; nimble.As adjectives the difference between ripe and rife
is that ripe is ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature; -- said of fruits, seeds, etc.; as, ripe grain while rife is widespread, common (especially of unpleasant or harmful things).As a noun ripe
is a fruit or vegetable which has ripened.As a verb ripe
is to ripen or mature.As an adverb rife is
plentifully, abundantly.ripe
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . Related to (l).Adjective
(er)- So mayst thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop / Into thy mother's lap.
David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
Wild Plants to the Rescue, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
- He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one.
- while things were just ripe for a war
- I am not ripe to pass sentence on the gravest public bodies.
- Those happy smilets, / That played on her ripe lip.
citation
- Alonso: And Trinculo is reeling-ripe : where should they / Find this grand liquor that hath gilded them? / How cam'st thou in this pickle?
citation
citation
Synonyms
* See alsoAntonyms
* unripeDerived terms
* ripenessNoun
(en noun)citation
Verb
(rip)- ALONSO:
Etymology 2
(etyl) (lena) ripa.Anagrams
* ----rife
English
Adjective
(er)- Smallpox was rife after the siege had been lifted.
- Before the plague of London, inflammations of the lungs were rife and mortal.
- The tumult of loud mirth was rife .
- The 'denominational considerations' mentioned below relate, of course, to anti-Semitic feeling, which was already rife in Vienna during the last years of the nineteenth century.
- They will have to reflect on a seventh successive defeat in a European final while Chelsea try to make sense of an eccentric season rife with controversy and bad feeling but once again one finishing on an exhilarating high.
- These woodlands are rife with red deer.
- What! I am rife a little yet.
Adverb
(en adverb)- The snowdrops grow rife on the slopes of Mount Pembroke.