0 (of fruit or crops) the quality of being ready to be collected or eaten: --
1 the quality of being fully developed: --
His intellectual powers had come very gradually to ripeness.
2 the condition of having a very strong, usually unpleasant, smell: --
3 (of someone's language) the fact of being very rude: --
There are well-documented instances of the ripeness of his language to journalists.
The ripeness of the berry is indicated not only by its softness, but often also by a slight translucence.
In the mid-1990s, there was more emphasis on harvesting at fuller ripeness, and new clones were introduced that produced riper, sweeter fruit.
The light-green surface blemishes turn orange when the fruit is at its peak ripeness.
There is a ripeness in human judgment.
Some people's ideas of ripeness vary tremendously.
Sufficient ripeness of age is all-important.
It pointed out that irradiation can be used to deceive consumers about the freshness or ripeness of food.
What we want and have tried to get is a real test of dead ripeness.