ripe olive

1 2.1

An olive picked when fully ripe and kept for eating

noun
/raɪp ˈɑːlɪv/

: aceituna madura

I love the taste of ripe olives in my pasta.
sliced ripe olives
a cup of ripe olives
chopped ripe olives

Examples

The chef added a ripe olive to the salad.
You can find delicious ripe olives at the local market, perfect for snacking.
She prefers ripe olives to green ones because of their smooth texture and deep taste.
The salad was topped with slices of ripe olive for a rich, robust flavor.
You can buy ripe olive paste at many gourmet shops for spreading on bread.
For a flavorful salad, add sliced ripe olives and feta cheese.
The recipe calls for a cup of ripe olives to enhance the dish's Mediterranean flavor.

Synonyms

olive

vsripe olive

204 1.0

A small oval fruit, green or black, from a tree used for food and oil

is picked fully mature and then preserved rather than used fresh or for oil

black olive

vsripe olive

5 1.4

A ripe dark olive preserved in salt water or oil and used in cooking

is harvested fully mature and preserved by curing pickling drying or canning

Antonyms

unripe

3 2.7

Not fully grown and not ready to eat or use

How Ripe

black olive

5 1.4

ripe olive

1 2.1

green olive

2 2.1

unripe

3 2.7

Surface Forms

ripe olive singular

ripe olives plural

Morphology

ripe + olive

The meaning is a straightforward adjectival modification: 'ripe' (fully developed and ready to eat) applied to 'olive' yields an olive that is mature and ready for harvest or consumption. This compositional pattern (ADJ + noun) is cross-linguistically common and therefore immediately predictable to a B1 learner who knows both words.

Etymology

Ripe olive comes from the simple farm image of an olive left on the tree until it is ripe — dark, soft and full of oil — then picked and preserved. That's why ripe olive means 'an olive picked when fully mature and preserved by curing, pickling, drying, or canning'.