Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several trailing or climbing cucurbit plants bearing fruits with a hard rind, especially Lagenaria siceraria and a variety of Cucurbita pepo.
  • noun The fruit of such a plant, sometimes of unusual shape or color.
  • noun The dried and hollowed-out shell of one of these fruits, often used as a container or as a decorative object.
  • idiom (off/out of) Very foolish; crazy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as calabazilla.
  • noun The bigroot of Oregon, Micrampelis Oregona.
  • noun Formerly, the fruit of one of the usually cultivated species of various cucurbitaceous genera, including what are now distinguished as meions, pumpkins, squashes, etc., as well as gourds in the present sense; the plant producing such fruit, Now, in a restricted sense, the fruit of Lagenaria vulgaris; the plant itself, in its Several varieties.
  • noun A dried and excavated gourd-shell prepared for use as a bottle or dipper, or in other ways.
  • noun A gourd-shaped vessel; hence, any vessel with a small neck for holding liquids; a roughly shaped bottle, especially a flask carried by travelers or pilgrims.
  • noun plural [A particular use of gourd, with ref. to their hollowness.] A kind of false dice, having a concealed cavity which affects the balance. See fullam, 1.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A fleshy, three-celled, many-seeded fruit, as the melon, pumpkin, cucumber, etc., of the order Cucurbitaceæ; and especially the bottle gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris) which occurs in a great variety of forms, and, when the interior part is removed, serves for bottles, dippers, cups, and other dishes.
  • noun A dipper or other vessel made from the shell of a gourd; hence, a drinking vessel; a bottle.
  • noun colocynth.
  • noun A silver dollar; -- so called in Cuba, Haiti, etc.
  • noun A false die. See gord.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of the climbing or trailing plants from the family Cucurbitaceae, which includes watermelon, pumpkins and cucumbers.
  • noun A fruit from a plant that is a member of the Cucurbitaceae family.
  • noun The dried and hardened shell of a gourd fruit, made into a drinking vessel, bowl, spoon, or other objects designed for use or decoration.
  • noun slang Head.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun bottle made from the dried shell of a bottle gourd
  • noun any of numerous inedible fruits with hard rinds
  • noun any vine of the family Cucurbitaceae that bears fruits with hard rinds

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English gourde, from Anglo-Norman, ultimately from Latin cucurbita.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman gurde, gourde, from Latin cucurbita.

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Examples

  • Note, The withering of a gourd is a thing which it does not become us to be angry at.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721

  • Since bitter gourd is such a healthy vegetable, Ms. Gloria was happy to find a way to make it that even children like.

    Weekend Herb Blogging Roundup for May 5 - 11, 2008 Laurie Constantino 2008

  • The bald gourd is diced into chunks and used for this bhaaji.

    Archive 2008-07-01 Anjali 2008

  • Since bitter gourd is such a healthy vegetable, Ms. Gloria was happy to find a way to make it that even children like.

    Archive 2008-05-01 Laurie Constantino 2008

  • The bald gourd is diced into chunks and used for this bhaaji.

    Bhajalele Valachi Bhaaji Anjali 2008

  • In her step-by-step recipe, one can see how minced bitter gourd is fried until golden, then seasoned with tempering, a spicy coconut paste and yogurt to make a cool Pavakka Pachadi with complementary bitter, tangy and spicy flavors.

    Archive 2007-05-01 Nupur 2007

  • Snake gourd is cooked until tender, then combined with whisked yogurt and a spicy ginger-chilli paste to make a tasty dish of Yogurt with Snake Gourd.

    Archive 2007-07-01 Nupur 2007

  • Karla/Karela/Bitter gourd is everyone's most hated vegetable atleast as a child that you actually might grow up to like.

    Archive 2007-06-01 Anjali 2007

  • Karla/Karela/Bitter gourd is everyone's most hated vegetable atleast as a child that you actually might grow up to like.

    Karlyache Wafers Anjali 2007

  • He called the gourd his mujercita, his little woman.

    One River Wade Davis 1996

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