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Ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature; -- said of fruits, seeds, etc.; as, ripe grain. So mayst thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop Into thy mother's lap. Milton.

To approach or come to perfection.

The state or quality of being ripe; maturity;; completeness; perfection; as, the ripeness of grain; ripeness of manhood; ripeness of judgment. Time, which made them their fame outlive, To Cowley scarce did ripeness give. Denham.

of timber. Bacon. The figures on our modern medals are raised and rounded to a very great perfection. Addison.

Imperfection; failing; fault. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

e is . . . a complement of cognitions, having, in point of form, the character of logical perfection, and in point of matter, the character of real truth. Sir W. Hamilton.

The line or place where two pieces of metal are united by welding. Cold shut, the imperfection in a casting caused by the flowing of liquid metal upon partially chilled metal; also, the imperfect weld in a forging caused by the inadequate heat of one surface under working.

A person who doubts the existence and perfections of God, or the truth of revelation; one who disbelieves the divine origin of the Christian religion. Suffer not your faith to be shaken by the sophistries of skeptics. S. Clarke.

revelation, or a denial of the divine origin of the Christian religion, or of the being, perfections, or truth of God. Let no . . . secret skepticism lead any one to doubt whether this blessed prospect will be realized. S. Miller.

ecific medicine in cases of malaria. In fact, all medicines will be found specific in the perfection of the science. Coleridge. Specific character (Nat. Hist.), a characteristic or characteristics distinguishing one species from every other species of the same genus. -- Specific disease (Med.) (a) A disease which prod…

arresting the motion of a machine, as when a certain operation is completed, or when an imperfection occurs in its performance or product, or in the material which is supplied to it, etc. -- Stop plank, one of a set of planks employed to form a sort of dam in some hydraulic works. -- Stop valve, a valve that can be c…

That which is sublimed; the product of a purifying process. Religion is the perfection, refinement, and sublimation of morality. South.

The utmost degree; perfection. [Obs.] Hallywell.

good of their country. Addison. In every experimental science, there is a tendency toward perfection. Macaulay.

by threes; consisting of three; as, the ternary number was anciently esteemed a symbol of perfection, and held in great veneration.

That department of philosophy which treats of the being, perfections, and government of God, and the immortality of the soul. Krauth-Fleming.

n infusion tinged with a yellow color by saffron. His [Sir Roger's] virtues, as well as imperfections, are tinged by a certain extravagance. Addison.

To mar or destroy the perfection of. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

island, represented by Sir Thomas More, in a work called Utopia, as enjoying the greatest perfection in politics, laws, and the like. See Utopia, in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.

embling Utopia; hence, ideal; chimerical; fanciful; founded upon, or involving, imaginary perfections; as, Utopian projects; Utopian happiness.