gourd

6 definitions found

gourd - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Gourd \Gourd\, n. [F. gourde, OF. cougourde, gouhourde, fr. L.
     cucurbita gourd (cf. NPr. cougourdo); perh. akin to corbin
     basket, E. corb. Cf. Cucurbite.]
     1. (Bot.) A fleshy, three-celled, many-seeded fruit, as the
        melon, pumpkin, cucumber, etc., of the order
        Cucurbitace[ae]; 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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A dipper or other vessel made from the shell of a gourd;
        hence, a drinking vessel; a bottle. --Chaucer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Bitter gourd, colocynth.
        [1913 Webster]

  Gourd \Gourd\, n.
     A false die. See Gord. Gourd

  Gourd \Gourd\, Gourde \Gourde\ n. [Sp. gordo large.]
     A silver dollar; -- so called in Cuba, Haiti, etc.
     --Simmonds.
     [1913 Webster]

  Gord \Gord\, n. [Written also gourd.] [Perh. hollow, and so
     named in allusion to a gourd.]
     An instrument of gaming; a sort of dice. [Obs.] --Beau. & Fl.
     [1913 Webster]

gourd - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  gourd
      n 1: bottle made from the dried shell of a bottle gourd [syn:
           gourd, calabash]
      2: any of numerous inedible fruits with hard rinds
      3: any vine of the family Cucurbitaceae that bears fruits with
         hard rinds [syn: gourd, gourd vine]

gourd - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :

  Gourd
  (1.) Jonah's gourd (Jonah 4:6-10), bearing the Hebrew name
  _kikayon_ (found only here), was probably the kiki of the
  Egyptians, the croton. This is the castor-oil plant, a species
  of ricinus, the palma Christi, so called from the palmate
  division of its leaves. Others with more probability regard it
  as the cucurbita the el-keroa of the Arabs, a kind of pumpkin
  peculiar to the East. "It is grown in great abundance on the
  alluvial banks of the Tigris and on the plain between the river
  and the ruins of Nineveh." At the present day it is trained to
  run over structures of mud and brush to form boots to protect
  the gardeners from the heat of the noon-day sun. It grows with
  extraordinary rapidity, and when cut or injured withers away
  also with great rapidity.
  
    (2.) Wild gourds (2 Kings 4:38-40), Heb. pakkuoth, belong to
  the family of the cucumber-like plants, some of which are
  poisonous. The species here referred to is probably the
  colocynth (Cucumis colocynthus). The LXX. render the word by
  "wild pumpkin." It abounds in the desert parts of Syria, Egypt,
  and Arabia. There is, however, another species, called the
  Cucumis prophetarum, from the idea that it afforded the gourd
  which "the sons of the prophets" shred by mistake into their
  pottage.