Gourd

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

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

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

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

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  gourd
       n 1: bottle made from the dried shell of a bottle gourd [syn: {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 vine}]

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  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.