maturationn.
/ˌmatʃᵿˈreɪʃn/, /ˌmatjᵿˈreɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌmætʃəˈreɪʃən/ I. The action of maturing or ripening.
1. Medicine. The formation, or coming to a head, of an abscess; the formation or accumulation of pus; †treatment to induce suppuration (obsolete).In some quots. overlapping with sense 3a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > suppuration > [noun]
festeringa1400
maturation?a1425
rankling?a1425
suppuration?a1425
whealingc1440
mattering?c1450
rancouring1567
suppurating1589
resolution1598
empyema1655
pyosis1684
pyogenesis1848
assimilation1864
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 42 v (MED) When it is saniate, þer is noȝt abiden perfite maturacioun for to opne it.
?a1425 MS Hunterian 95 f. 119 (MED) Þat partie of þe bocche þat is depe is not obedient to maturacioun.
c1475 ( Surg. Treat. in MS Wellcome 564 f. 59 (MED) If þe humouris þat ben aboute þe wounde ne beþ not obedient to turne to maturacioun.
?1541 R. Copland Formularye Aydes Apostemes in Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens sig. Siij The fyrste [cure] is to rype the mater. The seconde after the maduracyon to open it.
1543 B. Traheron tr. J. de Vigo Most Excellent Wks. Chirurg. i. ii. f. 13v/2 Humours, whych nature canne not..bringe to maturation or suppuration.
1598 A. M. tr. J. Guillemeau Frenche Chirurg. 23/4 Perseaving it to be come to his full maturation and ripnes.
1684 tr. T. Bonet Guide Pract. Physician i. 17 The parts affected may be cleared of the Thrush by maturation of it.
1800 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 3 502 The progressive stages of inflammation, maturation, and scabbing.
1861 T. J. Graham Pract. Med. 665 The period of maturation of the eruption.
1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. II. 565 The maturation of the pocks.
1980 Surg. Clinics N. Amer. 60 835 The procedure chosen to treat empyema greatly depends upon the phase of maturation of the empyema when treatment is begun.
2. † b. The (supposed) natural development of physical substances by the action of heat, motion, time, etc.; an instance of this. Obsolete.
a. The process of approaching or reaching the stage of being ready for consumption or use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > undertaking > preparation > [noun] > state of being in preparation > making or becoming mature
ripingeOE
concoction1555
hatching1555
ripening1561
maturation1605
incubation1614
gestation1615
coction1683
development1724
developing1744
ageing1853
maturing1897
1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke ii. vi. S b So wee see, that wines in whose maturation or rypening the heate of the sunne failed are made more crude and sharpe.
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §312 For the Maturation of Drinkes, it is wrought by the Congregation of the Spirits together.
1676 J. Evelyn Philos. Disc. Earth 59 If..the ground seem to require an hastier maturation, there may be a crop of Beans [etc.] sown upon it, which will mellow it exceedingly.
1707 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husbandry 598 Ginger accelerateth the Maturation of Cyder.
1738 W. Ellis London & Country Brewer III. xi. 38 The Liquor has before received due Maturation in the Copper and Mash-tun.
1774 W. Marshall Minutes Agric. 17 Oct. (1778) The idea of making compost useful while in a state of maturation.
1835 A. Ure Philos. Manuf. 83 The downy filaments of cotton..get more or less flattened in the maturation and drying of the wool.
1902 Daily Chron. 7 Jan. 6/3 A lengthy process of maturation in sherry casks is required to make it [sc. whisky] a wholesome beverage.
1959 W. James Word-bk. Wine 113 Maderization, a flaw in white wines caused by their absorption of too much oxygen during vinification or maturation.
1990 Garden (Royal Hort. Soc.) Sept. 30/2 If the soured clay smelled like rotting vegetation, it was highly prized. Souring is also called aging, or maturation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > heat > [noun] > combined heat or motion
maturationa1652
a1652 J. Smith Select Disc. (1660) iv. iii. 70 The very Grass..may..after many refinings, macerations and maturations,..spring up into so many Rational Souls.
1667 Philos. Trans. 1665–6 (Royal Soc.) 1 338 Whether..the Mine will afford Ore or Metal in tract of time,..and whether to this Maturation of the Mine, the being exposed to the free Aire be necessary.
1753 S. Shuckford Creation & Fall of Man viii. 133 Little Particles..which have..in the Maturation of Ages, remained sandy and sabulous..or become Rocks or Minerals.
3. The action or process of coming to full development (in various contexts).
a. Of a disease. Also (occasionally): the action of bringing a disease to full development.Used exceptionally as a count noun in quot. 1612.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > [noun] > stage of disease > maturation
coction1572
concoction1676
maturation1818–20
1612 J. Cotta Short Discouerie Dangers Ignorant Practisers Physicke 107 Distractions of the naturall heate & spirits, by criticall intentions, concoctions, & maturations of diseases.
1723 R. Blackmore Treat. Small-pox i. i. 10 Surgeons..call the Tumours of the Body Inflammations, which accompanied with Redness..proceed by Degrees to Digestion and Maturation.
1760 S. Johnson Let. 18 Oct. (1992) I. 193 Mr. Sharpe is of opinion that the tedious maturation of the cataract is a vulgar errour.
1818–20 E. Thompson Cullen's Nosologia (ed. 3) 331 A vesicular disease, which..passes through a regular course of increase, maturation, and decline.
1871 C. Darwin Descent of Man I. i. 12 That mysterious law which causes..the maturation..of various diseases, to follow lunar periods.
1964 S. Duke-Elder Parsons' Dis. Eye (ed. 14) xix. 272 Very rapid maturation [of a cataract] in younger patients usually indicates some complication such as cyclitis or diabetes.
1995 Jrnl. Magn. Resonance Imaging 5 287 Three different appearances were noted on MR images, corresponding to the stages of maturation of MO [i.e. myositis ossificans].
b. Of a person, a human faculty, etc. Later (Psychology): the physical and mental growth which, together with learning, leads to maturity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > person > adult > [noun] > becoming
adolescence?a1425
adolescency?a1475
maturation1616
emancipation1651
maturing1885
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > [noun] > degree of mental development > full development
maturation1921
1616 J. Lane Contin. Squire's Tale v. 492 Our care to feede them [sc. children],..our after cares, as they gaine maturation.
1655 Theophania 165 The birth, growth and maturation of our Love.
1660 G. Fleming Stemma Sacrvm 6 From the first time that could begin any Maturition to his Judgement.
1693 J. Tyrrell Brief Disquis. Law Nature 30 There happens to us Men..Maturation, Decay, and Dissolution.
1820 J. Foster Ess. Evils Pop. Ignorance 294 The maturation of the spiritual being, to the highest attainable degree.
a1843 R. Southey Doctor (1847) VI. 157 Imputing to the decay of our nature that which results from its maturation.
1921 Psychol. Rev. May 196 The process runs along parallel with the process of maturation and it is not clear in any case just what is contributed by heredity and what is due to learning.
1970 D. S. Wright et al. Introducing Psychol. iv. 70 There is still some value in contrasting maturation and learning... This is simply a convenient way of classifying different antecedent conditions of the single process of development.
1995 Times 2 Mar. 39/3 A novel of maturation—of physical and ideological transformation..the first flight of adolescence into adulthood.
c. Of a plant, fruit, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by age or cycles > [noun] > state of being or becoming ripe or mature
ripingeOE
ripenessOE
ripeOE
maturity?1440
ripening1561
maturation1621
superbience1672
coction1693
overripeness1806
blood-ripeness1826
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > growth > maturity or maturation
maturity1584
maturation1621
matureness1661
maturescence1803
MPF1975
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy i. i. ii. v. 31 Maturation, is especially obserued in the fruits of trees.
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. i. 61 To give..vegetation and maturation to Plants.
1770 A. Hunter et al. Georgical Ess. (new ed.) I. iv. 79 Maturation of their seed, seems all that is required of them.
1791 W. Hamilton tr. C.-L. Berthollet Elements Art of Dyeing I. i. i. vi. 115 By maturation, the fruit from having been hard grows soft..and sweet.
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 292 After the maturation of the fruit..they are plucked.
1882 Garden 7 Jan. 4/1 Perfect maturation of the foliage, which means maturation of the bulb.
1950 Jrnl. Ecol. 38 232 Maturation of the fruit takes 13–14 months; the earliest are ripe by mid-October.
1999 Jrnl. Molecular Biol. 294 1337 This aquaporin is found abundantly in vacuolar membranes of cotyledons..and is synthesized during seed maturation.
d. Of an animal, an organ of the body, a cell, etc.
ΚΠ
1656 H. More Antidote Atheism App. xiii. 392 He found these Birds [sc. Tree geese] in several degrees of maturation.
1755 B. Martin Mag. Arts & Sci. iii. xi. 376 The Maturation, and bringing to Perfection the Chicken contained in Embryo.
1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. IV. 146 Organs..which are appropriated to the..maturation, exclusion and deposition of their eggs.
1949 H. W. C. Vines Green's Man. Pathol. (ed. 17) xxxii. 847 A gonadotropic hormone which is concerned in both sexes with the development and maturation of the reproductive organs.
1988 Atlantic Insight Jan. 27/2 The [salmon] smolts would then be sold to a fish farm that would bring them to maturation.
e. Of a feeling, plan, enterprise, etc.
ΚΠ
1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 111. ⁋3 Time sufficient for the regular maturation of our schemes.
1751 S. Johnson Rambler No. 156. ⁋12 A play represents some transaction, through its regular maturation to its final event.
1845 J. H. Newman Ess. Devel. Christian Doctr. (1878) 38 The germination and maturation of some truth.
1884 G. Allen Philistia III. xxxvii. 273 The pamphlet and the paper were in course of maturation.
1968 M. Bunge in I. Lakatos & A. Musgrave Probl. Philos. Sci. 134 Scientific research can pass through several phases of maturation, the degree of maturity attained depending on the depth and the logical organization of the ideas involved.
4. Cell Biology. The formation of functional ova or sperm cells by meiosis; spec. the production of a functional egg from an oocyte arrested in meiosis, by resumption and completion of the meiotic divisions (see also maturation promoting factor n. at Compounds).
ΚΠ
1884 W. K. Parker Mammalian Descent (1885) ii. 55 The growth and maturation of the germs.
1896 E. B. Wilson Cell 338 Maturation, the final stages in the development of the germ-cells. More specifically, the processes by which the reduction of the number of chromosomes is effected.
1904 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 17 Dec. 1643 The maturation and fertilization of the ovum.
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. xx. 574 When the young egg has attained its full size it undergoes maturation. Its nucleus gives off two polar bodies..and the first of these is formed by a reducing division or meiotic division.
1972 H. Balin & S. Glasser Reprod. Biol. v. 319 (heading) Maturation of epididymal spermatozoa.
1997 City Paper (Baltimore) 1 Jan. 15/3 A follicle-stimulating hormone manufactured under the name Metrodin, to stimulate the growth of ovarian follicles and the maturation of eggs.
5. Virology. The process by which a complete or infectious virion is produced.
ΚΠ
1951 Jrnl. Bacteriol. 62 317 Maturation from prophage into phage can be induced in every bacterium of a culture of K12 by irradiation with small doses of ultraviolet rays.
1978 Jrnl. Clin. Microbiol. 8 604 Photodynamic inactivation interferes with viral maturation during the replicative cycle within cells.
2000 Cancer & Gene Therapy 7 53 The maturation of retrovirus particles involves proteolytic cleavage of the envelope glycoprotein transmembrane component.
6. Biochemistry. The covalent modification of a macromolecule; spec. post-transcriptional processing of a nucleic acid or post-translational processing of a protein.
ΚΠ
1967 Nature 18 Mar. 1134 (title) Maturation of low molecular weight RNA in tumour cells.
1982 W. I. P. Mainwaring et al. Nucleic Acid Biochem. & Molecular Biol. vii. 258 If transcribed, their contribution to the RNA transcript is removed by an excision process during the maturation of the RNA.
1990 Glycobiology 1 5/2 Steric effect of the coupled two heavy chains could inhibit the complete maturation of the sugar chains of IgGs.
2000 Appl. & Environmental Microbiol. 66 775 Protein disulfide isomerase is important in assisting the folding and maturation of secretory proteins in eukaryotes.
7. The facilitation or hastening of an enterprise, undertaking, etc. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > continuing > progress, advance, or further continuance > furtherance > [noun]
furtheringc1000
advancementc1325
nourishingc1325
speedingc1400
promotion1425
vauncingc1426
furtherancec1440
expedition1445
preferment1454
further1526
profection1533
towardliness1553
maturation1584
comforting1605
forwarding1635
advance1642
promotement1661
forwardness1741
fosterage1816
the world > action or operation > undertaking > preparation > [noun] > state of being in preparation > making or becoming mature > specifically of plans or works
maturation1655
maturement1883
1584 Copie of Let. conc. Erle of Leycester 118 It..tendeth directlie to Maturation of the principal purpose.
1623 H. Cockeram Eng. Dict. Maturation, a hastening.
1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. ix. 173 The said Convocation met..for the maturation of business with the more expedition.
8. Alchemy. The conversion of a base metal into gold; purification. Cf. maturate v. 4. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > alchemy > alchemical processes > [noun] > transmutation
multiplyingc1395
maturing?a1425
transmutation1478
projectiona1550
curtation1584
longation1584
tincting1599
maturation1617
1617 J. Woodall Surgions Mate Termes 345 Maturation is exaltation of a substance, rude and crude to that which is mature and perfect.
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §326 We conceive indeed, that a perfect good Concoction, or Digestion, or Maturation of some Metalls, will produce Gold.
1671 J. Webster Metallographia ii. 31 Whose Art of..Maturation of Metals he laboureth to prove to be false.
1756 T. Amory Life John Buncle I. 262 He proceeded in a second method, by maturation, to subtilize, purify, and digest quicksilver, and thereby convert it into gold.
Compounds
maturation division n. Cell Biology either of the two divisions of meiosis.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > genetic activity > [noun] > stages of mitosis or meiosis
resting stage1810
prophase1884
anaphase1887
metaphase1887
synapsis1895
telophase1895
maturation division1896
postsynapsis1898
strepsinema1900
synizesis1905
interkinesis1906
pachynema1909
telosynapsis1909
leptonema1911
metasyndesis1911
strepsitene1911
zygonema1911
zygotene1911
leptotene1912
pachytene1912
interphase1913
telosyndesis1920
prometaphase1931
dictyotene1957
dictyate1958
1896 E. B. Wilson Cell v. 185 It is plain that the nature of the maturation-divisions can only be approached through a study of the origin of the tetrads.
1966 Chromosoma 19 99 (heading) The maturation divisions of the parthenogenetic stick insect Carausius morosus Br.
1994 Devel., Growth & Differentiation 36 557 We investigated the distribution of mitotic microtubules..during maturation division of starfish oocytes.
maturation promoting factor n. Cell Biology a protein kinase which, in complex with other proteins, initiates mitosis in eukaryotic cells, and stimulates meiosis in immature oocytes (abbreviated MPF).
ΚΠ
1971 Y. Masui & C. L. Markert in Jrnl. Exper. Zool. 177 134/2 The release within the cytoplasm of large amounts of a ‘maturation promoting factor’ that may be diluted and transferred by injection into other oocytes. where it again induces maturation.
1988 Development 103 575 (title) Normal embryogenesis occurs in starfish eggs induced to mature by microinjection of cytoplasm containing maturation-promoting factor (MPF).
1998 Molecular Reprod. & Devel. 50 499 Oocyte maturation is finally triggered by the maturation-promoting factor (MPF), which consists of cdc2 and cyclin B.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2001; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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