different between frail vs mature

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French fraile, from Latin fragilis. Cognate to fraction, fracture, and doublet of fragile.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?e?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Adjective

frail (comparative frailer, superlative frailest)

1. Easily broken physically; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish
   • 1831, John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography: Volume 1, Blue-grey Fly-catcher

     Its nest is composed of the frailest materials, and is light and small in proportion to the size of the bird

2. Weak; infirm.
   • 1922, Isaac Rosenberg, Dawn

     O as the soft and frail lights break upon your eyelids

3. Mentally fragile.
4. Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; unchaste.

Derived terms

• frailly
• frailness

Related terms

Translations

Noun

frail (plural frails)

1. A basket made of rushes, used chiefly to hold figs and raisins.
2. The quantity of fruit or other items contained in a frail.
3. A rush for weaving baskets.
4. (dated, slang) A girl.
   • 1931, Cab Calloway / Irving Mills, ‘Minnie the Moocher’:

     She was the roughest, toughest frail, but Minnie had a heart as big as a whale.

   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin 2011, p. 148:

     ‘She's pickin' 'em tonight, right on the nose,’ he said. ‘That tall black-headed frail.’

   • 1941, Preston Sturges, Sullivan's Travels, published in Five Screenplays, ?ISBN, page 77:

     Sullivan, the girl and the butler get to the ground. The girl wears a turtle-neck sweater, a cap slightly sideways, a torn coat, turned-up pants and sneakers.

     SULLIVAN Why don't you go back with the car... You look about as much like a boy as Mae West.

     THE GIRL All right, they'll think I'm your frail.

Verb

frail (third-person singular simple present frails, present participle frailing, simple past and past participle frailed)

1. To play a stringed instrument, usually a banjo, by picking with the back of a fingernail.

References

• frail in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• filar, flair

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /m??tj??/, /m??t???/, /m??t???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /m??t??(?)?/, /m??t??/, /m??t(j)???/
• Rhymes: -??(?), -??(?), -??(?)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French mature, from Latin m?t?rus. Doublet of maduro. Partially displaced ripe, from Old English r?pe (“ripe, mature”).

Adjective

mature (comparative maturer or more mature, superlative maturest or most mature)

1. Fully developed; grown up in terms of physical appearance, behaviour or thinking; ripe.

2. Brought to a state of complete readiness.

3. Profound; careful.

4. (medicine, obsolete) Come to, or in a state of, completed suppuration.
5. (television, film) Suitable for adults only, due to sexual themes, violence, etc.

Synonyms

• (grown up in terms of physical appearance): adult, grown; see also Thesaurus:full-grown
• (grown up in terms of behaviour or thinking): adultish, grown up; see also Thesaurus:mature
• (suitable for adults only): adult; see also Thesaurus:for adults

Antonyms

• (grown up): childish, immature
• (profound): superficial

Derived terms

• maturation
• maturely
• matureness
• maturity
• sexually mature

Translations

Etymology 2

From French maturer (“to mature”), from Latin m?t?r?.

Verb

mature (third-person singular simple present matures, present participle maturing, simple past and past participle matured)

1. (intransitive) To proceed toward maturity: full development or completion (either of concrete or of abstract things, e.g. plans, judgments, qualities).

   Synonyms: develop, grow, progress, ripen

2. (intransitive, of food, especially fruit) To attain maturity, to become mature or ripe.

   Synonyms: ripen, ripen up

3. (transitive) To bring (something) to maturity, full development, or completion.
4. (transitive) To make (something, e.g. fruit) ripe or mature.

   Synonym: ripen

5. (intransitive, of a person) To proceed toward or become mature or full-grown, either physically or psychologically; to gain experience or wisdom with age.

   Synonyms: age, develop, grow up; see also Thesaurus:to age

6. (transitive) To make (someone) mature.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:make older

7. (intransitive, finance) To reach the date when payment is due.

Synonyms

• maturate

Derived terms

• maturable
• mature up

Translations

Anagrams

• tamure

French

Etymology

From Middle French mature, borrowed from Latin m?t?rus. Doublet of mûr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.ty?/
• Homophones: maturent, matures

Adjective

mature (plural matures)

1. (of a person) mature

Verb

mature

1. first-person singular present indicative of maturer
2. third-person singular present indicative of maturer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of maturer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of maturer
5. second-person singular imperative of maturer

Further reading

• “mature” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ure

Adjective

mature f pl

1. feminine plural of maturo

Anagrams

• murate
• mutare
• muterà

Latin

Adjective

m?t?re

1. vocative masculine singular of m?t?rus

References

• mature in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• mature in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• mature in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Middle English

Noun

mature

1. Alternative form of matere

Portuguese

Verb

mature

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of maturar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of maturar
3. third-person singular imperative of maturar