Mature

• POS: Adjective, Verb (usu participle), Verb (intransitive)
• HYPHEN: ma=ture

CIDE DICTIONARY

Mature, a. [L. maturus; prob. akin to E. matin.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "Now is love mature in ear."  [1913 Webster]

  "How shall I meet, or how accost, the sage,
  Unskilled in speech, nor yet mature of age?"  [1913 Webster]
•  Completely worked out; fully digested or prepared; ready for action; made ready for destined application or use; perfected; as, a mature plan.  [1913 Webster]

  "This lies glowing, . . . and is almost mature for the violent breaking out."  [1913 Webster]
•  Of or pertaining to a condition of full development; as, a man of mature years.  [1913 Webster]
•  Come to, or in a state of, completed suppuration.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Ripe; perfect; completed; prepared; digested; ready.

Mature, v. t. [See Maturate, Mature.].

 To bring or hasten to maturity; to promote ripeness in; to ripen; to complete; as, to mature one's plans.  Bacon.  [1913 Webster]

Mature, v. i. 

•  To advance toward maturity; to become ripe; as, wine matures by age; the judgment matures by age and experience.  [1913 Webster]
•  Hence, to become due, as a note.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Mature, adj. & v.
--adj. (maturer, maturest)
1 with fully developed powers of body and mind, adult.
2 complete in natural development, ripe.
3 (of thought, intentions, etc.) duly careful and adequate.
4 (of a bill etc.) due for payment.
--v.
1 a tr. & intr. develop fully. b tr. & intr. ripen. c intr. come to maturity.
2 tr. perfect (a plan etc.).
3 intr. (of a bill etc.) become due for payment.

Idiom

mature student an adult student who is older than most students.

Derivative

maturely adv. matureness n. maturity n.

Etymology

ME f. L maturus timely, early

THESAURUS

Mature

accomplish, accrue, adult, advance, age, aged, all ready, all set, archetypical, armed, armed and ready, assemble, attain majority, back, bear fruit, beautify, beget, big, blase, bloom, blooming, blossom, blossoming, blow, booted and spurred, breed, brew, briefed, bring forth, bring into being, bring to completion, bring to fruition, bring to maturity, budding, build, burgeon, burgeoning, call into being, cast, classic, coached, cocked, coin, come of age, come to fruition, come to maturity, complete, compose, compound, conceive, concoct, construct, consummate, consummated, contrive, cook up, cosmopolitan, cosmopolite, create, crescent, crown, culminate, cultivate, design, develop, developed, devise, discover, do to perfection, dream up, due, eke out, elaborate, embellish, engender, entire, equipped, erect, evolute, evolve, exemplary, experienced, expert, extrude, fabricate, fall due, familiarized, fashion, fill in, fill out, finish, finished, fledge, florescent, flourish, flourishing, flower, flowering, form, formulate, frame, fudge together, fulfill, full, full-blown, full-fledged, full-grown, full-scale, fully developed, gather, generate, germinate, get up, give being to, give rise to, global, good and ready, groomed, grow, grow up, growing, grown, grown up, grown-up, hatch, hypertrophied, hypertrophy, improve, improvise, in arms, in arrear, in arrears, in battle array, in full bloom, in readiness, in the saddle, increase, indite, informed, intact, invent, knowing, knowledgeable, leave the nest, loaded, loaded for bear, make, make do with, make good, make up, manufacture, marriable, marriageable, masterful, masterly, maturate, maturated, matured, maturescent, mellow, mellowed, mint, mobilized, model, mold, mushroom, not born yesterday, nubile, of age, of marriageable age, old, on the mark, originate, outgrow, outstanding, overdevelop, overdeveloped, overdue, overgrow, overgrown, overtop, owed, owing, patch together, payable, perfect, perfected, piece out, piece together, plan, planned, polish, polished, practiced, prearranged, prefabricate, prepare, prepared, prepared and ready, prepped, primed, procreate, produce, proficient, progress, provided, psyched up, pullulate, put together, put up, quintessential, raise, reach its season, reach manhood, reach maturity, reach twenty-one, reach voting age, ready, ready for anything, rear, receivable, redeemable, refill, refine, refined, replenish, reproduce, ripe, ripen, ripened, round out, run up, sagacious, season, seasoned, set, set up, settle down, shape, shoot up, solid, sophisticated, spawn, spring up, sprout, sprout up, sprouting, strike out, temper, tempered, think out, think up, thrive, thriving, toga virilis, top off, total, tower, tried, tried and true, unabbreviated, uncut, undiminished, unexpurgated, unpaid, unsettled, up in arms, upshoot, upspear, upspring, upsprout, vegetate, veteran, vigilant, wax, well-prepared, whole, whomp up, world-wise, worldly, worldly-wise, write

ROGET THESAURUS

Mature

Plan

VB plan, scheme, design, frame, contrive, project, forecast, sketch, devise, invent, set one's wits to work, spring a project, fall upon, hit upon, strike out, chalk out, cut out, lay out, map out, lay down a plan, shape out a course, mark out a course, predetermine, concert, preconcert, preestablish, prepare, hatch, hatch a plot concoct, take steps, take measures, cast, recast, systematize, organize, arrange, digest, mature, plot, counter-plot, counter-mine, dig a mine, lay a train, intrigue.

Perfection

VB be perfect, transcend, bring to perfection, perfect, ripen, mature, complete, put in trim, maturate.

Improvement

VB improve, be better, become better, get better, mend, amend, advance, ascend, increase, fructify, ripen, mature, pick up, come about, rally, take a favorable turn, turn over a new leaf, turn the corner, raise one's head, sow one's wild oats, recover, be better, be improved by, turn to right account, turn to good account, turn to best account, profit by, reap the benefit of, make good use of, make capital out of, place to good account, render better, improve, mend, amend, better, ameliorate, meliorate, correct, decrassify, improve upon, refine upon, rectify, enrich, mellow, elaborate, fatten, promote, cultivate, advance, forward, enhance, bring forward, bring on, foster, invigorate, touch up, rub up, brush up, furbish up, bolster up, vamp up, brighten up, warm up, polish, cook, make the most of, set off to advantage, prune, repair, put in order, review, revise, make corrections, make improvements, doctor, purify, relieve, refresh, infuse new blood into, recruit, reform, remodel, reorganize, new model, view in a new light, think better of, appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober, palliate, mitigate, lessen an evil.

Preparation

VB prepare, get ready, make ready, make preparations, settle preliminaries, get up, sound the note of preparation, set in order, put in order, forecast, prepare the ground, plow the ground, dress the ground, till the soil, cultivate the soil, predispose, sow the seed, lay a train, dig a mine, lay the groundwork, fix the groundwork, lay the basis, fix the basis, lay the foundations, fix the foundations, dig the foundations, erect the scaffolding, lay the first stone, roughhew, cut out work, block out, hammer out, lick into shape, elaborate, mature, ripen, mellow, season, bring to maturity, nurture, hatch, cook, brew, temper, anneal, smelt, barbecue, infumate, maturate, equip, arm, man, fit-out, fit up, furnish, rig, dress, garnish, betrim, accouter, array, fettle, fledge, dress up, furbish up, brush up, vamp up, refurbish, sharpen one's tools, trim one's foils, set, prime, attune, whet the knife, whet the sword, wind up, screw up, adjust, put in trim, put in train, put in gear, put in working order, put in tune, put in a groove for, put in harness, pack, train, inure, breed, prepare for, rehearse, make provision for, take steps, take measures, take precautions, provide, provide against, beat up for recruits, open the door to, set one's house in order, make all snug, clear the decks, clear for action, close one's ranks, shuffle the cards, prepare oneself, serve an apprenticeship, lay oneself out for, get into harness, gird up one's loins, buckle on one's armor, reculer pour mieux sauter, prime and load, shoulder arms, get the steam up, put the horses to, guard against, make sure against, forearm, make sure, prepare for the evil day, have a rod in pickle, provide against a rainy day, feather one's nest, lay in provisions, make investments, keep on foot, be prepared, be ready, hold oneself in readiness, keep one's powder dry, lie in wait for, anticipate, principiis obstare, veniente occurrere morbo.

N preparation, providing, provision, providence, anticipation, precaution, preconcertation, predisposition, forecast, rehearsal, note of preparation, arrangement, clearance, adjustment, tuning, equipment, outfit, accouterment, armament, array, ripening, maturation, evolution, elaboration, concoction, digestion, gestation, batching, incubation, sitting, groundwork, first stone, cradle, stepping-stone, foundation, scaffold, scaffolding, echafaudage, training, inurement, novitiate, cooking, cookery, brewing, culinary art, tilling, plowing sowing, semination, cultivation, preparedness, readiness, ripeness, mellowness, maturity, un impromptu fait a loisir, preparer, trainer, pioneer, trailblazer, avant-courrier, avant-coureur, voortrekker, sappers and miners, pavior, navvy, packer, stevedore, warming pan, preparing, in preparation, in course of preparation, in agitation, in embryo, in hand, in train, afoot, afloat, on foot, on the stocks, on the anvil, under consideration, brewing, batching, forthcoming, brooding, in store for, in reserve, precautionary, provident, preparative, preparatory, provisional, inchoate, under revision, preliminary, prepared, in readiness, ready, ready to one's band, ready made, ready cut and dried: made to one's hand, handy, on the table, in gear, in working order, in working gear, snug, in practice, ripe, mature, mellow, pukka, practiced, labored, elaborate, highly-wrought, smelling of the lamp, worked up, in full feather, in best bib and tucker, in harness, at harness, in the saddle, in arms, in battle array, in war paint, up in arms, armed at all points, armed to the teeth, armed cap a pie, sword in hand, booted and spurred, in utrumque paratus, semper paratus, on the alert, at one's post, in preparation, in anticipation of, against, for, abroach, a bove majori discit arare minor, looking before and after, si vis pacem para bellum.

Adolescence

N adolescence, pubescence, majority, adultism, adultness, manhood, virility, maturity full age, ripe age, flower of age, prime of life, meridian of life, spring of life, man, woman, adult, no chicken, adolescent, pubescent, of age, of full age, of ripe age, out of one's teens, grown up, mature, full grown, in one's prime, middle-aged, manly, virile, adult, womanly, matronly, marriageable, nubile, Time with reference to an Effect or Purpose.

Conversion

VB be converted into, become, get, wax, come to, turn to, turn into, evolve into, develop into, turn out, lapse, shift, run into, fall into, pass into, slide into, glide into, grow into, ripen into, open into, resolve itself into, settle into, merge into, emerge as, melt, grow, come round to, mature, mellow, assume the form of, assume the shape of, assume the state of, assume the nature of, assume the character of, illapse, begin a new phase, assume a new phase, undergo a change, convert into, resolve into, make, render, mold, form, remodel, new model, refound, reform, reorganize, assimilate to, bring to, reduce to.