a. [OE. unripe (f. un- UN-1 7 + rípe RIPE a.), = WFris. on-, ûnryp, NFris. ünrip(p, MDu. (Du.) onrijp, OHG. unrîfi (MHG. unrîf, G. unreif).]
† 1. Of death: Untimely, premature. Obs.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 149. Immatura [mors], unripe deað.
1548. Udall, Erasmus Par. Luke vii. 69 b. The unripe death of the young strieplyng.
a. 1585. Sidney, Arcadia, II. vi. Dorilaus, whose unripe death doth yet … draw teares from vertuous eyes.
1633. P. Fletcher (title), Elisa, or An Elegie upon the Unripe Decease of Sr Antonie Irby.
2. Immature; not arrived at full development.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter cxviii. 147. I ran in barnhede, þat is vnrype til perfeccioun.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke, 141 b. That same stemme of the Judaicall figtree brought foorth … vnsauourie, & vnripe people.
1620. Southampton Court Leet Rec. (1907), III. 582. The teachinge of a Stranger … vnripe of yeres.
a. 1639. Waller, Battle Summer-Isl., I. 59. So in this northern tract our hoarser throats Utter unripe and ill-constrained notes.
1659. W. Chamberlayne, Pharon., II. iii. 612. Yet Justice slumbers I’ the prosecution of his unripe fate.
1700. Dryden, Sigism. & Guisc., 254. Resolv’d his unripe Vengeance to defer, The Royal Spy … Sought not the Garden.
1704. J. Trapp, Abra-Mulé, I. i. 33. Thy tender Innocence, and unripe Beauty.
1819. Shelley, Peter Bell 3rd, Prol. 15. The First Peter—he who was Like the shadow in the glass Of the second, yet unripe.
1847. Emerson, Each & All, 38. Beauty is unripe childhood’s cheat.
1891. Spectator, 28 Feb. To try unripe and ill-conceived schemes for improving their condition.
b. Of years or age.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 120. The election beyng vnfree, and the yeres vnripe, eche of them almost of necessitie must hate the other.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. ii. 9. I whose vnryper yeares are yet vnfit For thing of weight.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., Ep. Ded. These raw Essayes of my very unripe yeares.
1659. W. Chamberlayne, Pharon., IV. v. 235. The old Experienced courtiers kneel; by which … those of unriper age [etc.].
1800. Wordsw., Brothers, 297. The boy … of unripe years, a stripling only.
1814. Cary, Dante, Parad., XVII. 71. His unripe age Yet holds him from observance.
3. Of fruit, etc.: Not matured by growth.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 320. Mi stefne is bold … & þin is iliche one pype Of one smale weode vnripe.
1382. Wyclif, Rev. vi. 13. As a fijge tree sendith his vnripe fyges.
1535. Coverdale, Wisd. x. 7. The vnripe and vntymely frutes that growe vpon the trees.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 67. While they be soure and vnripe, they are white.
1614. R. Tailor, Hog hath lost Pearl, II. Unripe fruit will ask more shaking before they fall than those that are.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, in Aliments, etc., I. 247. Unripe, they are sour, and rather astringent.
1798. Coleridge, Fears in Solitude, 9. Fresh and delicate As vernal corn-field, or the unripe flax.
1849. Claridge, Cold Water Cure, 112. To eat plentifully of common unripe plums.
1882. Garden, 4 Feb., 72/3. Unripe wood is liable to get injured by frosts.
transf. a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 93. Rude [roset] is made of vnripe oile and of rosez.
1693. Sir T. Blount, Nat. Hist., 250. Erastus affirms … that … there hath been Unripe and Unconcocted Silver found in Mines.
1751. Warburton, Pope’s Wks., IV. 128, note. The image is taken from half-formed unripe lightning, which streams along the sky.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 279. No. 10. Red and yellow, unripe pouzzolana. Ibid. Unripe black pumice.
1884. J. Phin, Dict. Apiculture, 73. Unripe Honey.—Honey from which the water has not been sufficiently evaporated.
