unripe
Americanadjective
-
not ripe; immature; not fully developed.
unripe fruit.
-
too early; premature.
adjective
-
not fully matured
-
not fully prepared or developed; not ready
-
obsolete premature or untimely
Other Word Forms
- unripely adverb
- unripeness noun
Etymology
Origin of unripe
before 1000; Middle English unrype, Old English unrīpe. See un- 1, ripe
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tomatoes, for example, grow in clusters, which means a robot must carefully select ripe fruit while leaving unripe ones untouched.
From Science Daily • Mar. 18, 2026
On a hot morning in mid-July at the community farm, a patch of lush green ringed by high-rise apartments, Oh inspected his bananas’ progress: still unripe but noticeably fatter.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 31, 2024
Mendel observed the way that different physical properties of the pea plants were inherited: pod shape, seed shape, seed color, unripe pod color, flower color, stem length and flower placement.
From Salon • Feb. 23, 2023
His sheep are fed a diet of saffron milk, dates and unripe bananas.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 12, 2022
‘But I deem the time unripe; and I have no mind for strife except with our Enemy and his servants.’
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
