late bloomer

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late bloomer (plural late bloomers)

1. (idiomatic) A person who reaches puberty or who matures comparatively later than is typical.
   • 2003, Kathy McCoy; Charles Wibbelsman, Growing and Changing, Penguin, →ISBN, page 14:

     You can be a normal late bloomer whose progress through puberty hovers on the late side of each normal age range if: It's in your genes. That is, if one or both parents or other relatives were also late bloomers.

2. (idiomatic) A person who enters a romantic relationship or engages in sexual intercourse significantly later in life.
3. (idiomatic) A person who achieves proficiency or success in a field significantly later in life.
   • 2010 August 16, Grant Rosenberg, “Jean Reno: Putting the Fun in French Cinema”, in Time‎, archived from the original on January 26, 2011:

     He was a late bloomer, finding success at 40 in Luc Besson's 1988 film The Big Blue.

   • 2021, Lil Nas X, Jack Harlow et al (lyrics and music), “Industry Baby”, performed by Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow:

     [Harlow:] I'm just a late bloomer (Mmm) / I didn't peak in high school, I'm still out here gettin' cuter (Woo)

4. (horticulture) A flowering plant that blooms later in a growing season than other flowering plants.
   • 1907, Indiana State Board of Agriculture, Annual Report of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture, page 613:

     One of the characteristics of the pawpaw is that it always bears [fruit], yet there is an occasional season when there is only a light crop on account of late frosts, but it generally bears some, as it is a late bloomer.

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