complete in natural growth or development, as plant and animal forms: a mature rose bush.
2.
ripe, as fruit, or fully aged, as cheese or wine.
3.
fully developed in body or mind, as a person: a mature woman.
4.
pertaining to or characteristic of full development: a mature appearance; fruit with a mature softness.
5.
completed, perfected, or elaborated in full by the mind: mature plans.
6.
(of an industry, technology, market, etc.) no longer developing or expanding; having little or no potential for further growth or expansion; exhausted or saturated.
7.
intended for or restricted to adults, esp. by reason of explicit sexual content or the inclusion of violence or obscene language: mature movies.
8.
composed of adults, considered as being less susceptible than minors to explicit sexual content, violence, or obscene language, as of a film or stage performance: for mature audiences only.
9.
Finance. having reached the limit of its time; having become payable or due: a mature bond.
10.
Medicine/Medical.
a.
having attained definitive form or function, as by maturation of an epithelium from a basal layer.
b.
having attained the end stage of a normal or abnormal biological process: a mature boil.
11.
Geology. (of a landscape) exhibiting the stage of maximum topographical diversity, as in the cycle of erosion of a land surface.
–verb (used with object)
12.
to make mature; ripen, as fruit or cheese.
13.
to bring to full development: His hard experiences in the city matured him.
14.
to complete or perfect.
–verb (used without object)
15.
to become mature; ripen, as fruit or cheese.
16.
to come to full development: Our plans have not yet matured.
17.
Finance. to become due, as a note.
[Origin: 1400–50; late ME < L mātūrus ripe, timely, early; akin to manes, matutinal]
Reference: No results found in Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia and Crystal Reference Encyclopedia. Would you like to see the 32 entries in other encyclopedias, or search the Web for mature?