Definitions

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

  • noun A tendril-bearing, sprawling annual plant (Benincasa hispida) widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical Asia for its waxy-skinned edible fruit.
  • noun The fruit of this plant, often cooked as a vegetable or boiled and sweetened as a confection.
  • noun Any of several varieties of melon (Cucumis melo) usually having a smooth hard rind and including the honeydew melon and the crenshaw.

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

  • noun A vine of the genus Benincasa cultivated throughout Asia.
  • noun A green, fuzzy melon fruit taken from this vine that has sweet white flesh.

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

  • noun any of a variety of muskmelon vines having fruit with a smooth white rind and white or greenish flesh that does not have a musky smell
  • noun the fruit of the winter melon vine; a green melon with pale green to orange flesh that keeps well

Etymologies

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

[Translation of Chinese (Mandarin) dōngguā : dōng, winter + guā, melon (because it keeps well and can be eaten in winter although grown in summer).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Mandarin 冬瓜 (dōngguā) winter melon.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word winter melon.

Examples

    Sorry, no example sentences found.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.