ripening

Everyday

1. Ripening means becoming ripe — ready to eat, soft, sweet and coloured. tree →
2. Ripening can describe something that is slowly developing or getting ready. tree →

In the lessons

Science (plants and life cycles): fruit ripens after flowers are pollinated; bananas change from green to yellow. Everyday life: put an unripe avocado in a bag with a banana to speed up ripening, because ripening fruit gives off a gas (ethylene). Seasons: the ripening corn in late summer. Phrases: ripening fruit, ripening in the sun, ripening process.

Examples

• The tomatoes are ripening on the windowsill. tree →
• Ripening bananas turn from green to yellow. tree →
• The apples are ripening in the orchard. tree →
• Sunshine helps the ripening of grapes. tree →
• Put the pears in a bag to speed up ripening. tree →
• Fields of ripening wheat turned gold. tree →

Note

From ripe → ripen (-en makes a verb: become ripe) → ripening. Unripe fruit can be hard and sour; overripe fruit is too soft. Some fruit keeps ripening after picking (bananas), some does not (grapes).

In Jewish tradition

In Isaiah it means the grape swelling toward ripeness just before God cuts it away, a picture of sudden judgment.

Interpretation. Tradition reads this as God acting at the moment the enemy seems about to succeed, as a promise that He will end the threat.

Examples

• For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the bud becometh a ripening grape, He will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the shoots will He take away and lop off. (Prophets ISA.18.5, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

From ripe → ripen (-en makes a verb: become ripe) → ripening. Unripe fruit can be hard and sour; overripe fruit is too soft. Some fruit keeps ripening after picking (bananas), some does not (grapes).