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Glite Dictionary
🌼 Blooming late 🌟 Success late
late-flowering

late-flowering

6.8
Show important talent or success later than usual in life
  • adjective
translation icon : tardío en florecer
  • I know there are readers who have followed Ferry's career all along the way, from the poems collected in On the Way to the Island (1960) and Strangers: A Book of Poems (1983) on to the late flowering of his work during the past decade.

Examples

  • Her late-flowering talent for painting emerged in her 50s, surprising everyone who had known her only as a writer.

  • He became a late-flowering success in his career, achieving significant milestones in his 60s that he had once thought were impossible.

  • Many artists experience a late-flowering phase, when they finally gain the recognition they deserve after years of struggle.

Synonyms

late-blooming
vslate-flowering
4.8

Something that develops or succeeds later than usual

focuses more on later important abilities or public recognition

How Late

late-flowering
6.8

Surface Forms

late-flowering positive

Morphology

late-flowering = late + flowering (semi-transparent) = late + flower + ing

Formed from 'late' + 'flowering' but used metaphorically for human development; the metaphor is understandable but the precise sense ('achieving or maturing late in life') is an extended, non-literal meaning.

Etymology

The word late-flowering comes from late meaning 'coming after the usual time' and flowering from flower meaning 'to bloom'. A helpful way to remember a late-flowering person is to imagine someone who 'blooms' later in life, which is why the term describes people who find success or skill later than most.