immature

From Middle French immature. Partially displaced unripe, from Old English unrīpe (“unripe, immature”).

• IPA^(key): /ɪməˈtjʊə(ɹ)/, /ɪməˈt͡ʃʊə(ɹ)/, /ɪməˈt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)

immature (comparative more immature, superlative most immature)

1. (now rare) Occurring before the proper time; untimely, premature (especially of death). [from 16th c.]
   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CDLXXXI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC:

     And thou also canst best account for the causes of her immature death […] .

2. Not fully formed or developed; not grown. [from 17th c.]
3. Childish in behavior; juvenile. [from 20th c.]

   You're only young once, but you can be immature the rest of your life.

   The man was immature for throwing a tantrum.

   • Wilhelm Stekel - As quoted in The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J. D. Salinger.

     The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

   Synonyms: infantile, milky; see also Thesaurus:childish

immature (plural immatures)

1. An immature member of a species.
   • 2001, DE Walter, H Proctor, RA Norton, Acarology: Proceedings of the 10th International Congress, →ISBN, page 51:

     There are many genera and even families of Brachypylina for which immatures are not yet known, and thus numerous examples of adult convergence and misclassification remain to be revealed: such is the case with Hypozetes.

   • 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 240:

     While on a walk the next morning I found what looked like a patch of old growth habitat - perhaps somewhere the fires had missed - and to my astonishment saw a female Red-lored Whistler accompanied by an immature.

• mature
• immaturity

Borrowed from Latin immātūrus.

• IPA^(key): /i.ma.tyʁ/

immature (plural immatures)

1. immature, unripe

• “immature”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• Audio:

  (file)

immature

1. inflection of immatur:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

• IPA^(key): /im.maˈtu.re/
• Rhymes: -ure
• Hyphenation: im‧ma‧tù‧re

immature

1. feminine plural of immaturo

• ammutire

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /im.maːˈtuː.re/, [ɪmːäːˈt̪uːrɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /im.maˈtu.re/, [imːäˈt̪uːre]

immātūre

1. vocative masculine singular of immātūrus

• “immature”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• immature in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.