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Webster 1913 Edition


Calabash

Cal′a-bash

(kăl′ȧ-băsh)
,
Noun.
[Sp.
calabaza
, or Pg.
calabaça
,
cabaça
(cf. F.
Calebasse
), lit., a dry gourd, fr. Ar.
qar’
, fem., a kind of gourd +
aibas
dry.]
1.
The common gourd (plant or fruit).
2.
The fruit of the calabash tree.
3.
A water dipper, bottle, bascket, or other utensil, made from the dry shell of a calabash or gourd.
Calabash tree
.
(Bot.)
,
a tree of tropical America (
Crescentia cujete
), producing a large gourdlike fruit, containing a purgative pulp. Its hard shell, after the removal of the pulp, is used for cups, bottles, etc. The
African calabash tree
is the baobab.

Webster 1828 Edition


Calabash

CALABASH

,
Noun.
1.
A vessel made of a dried gourd-shell or of the shell of a calabash tree, used for containing liquors, or goods, as pitch, rosin and the like.
2.
A popular name of the gourd-plant, or Cucurbita.

Definition 2024


calabash

calabash

English

Noun

calabash (plural calabashes)

  1. A vine grown for its fruit, which can be harvested young and used as a vegetable, or harvested mature, dried, and used as a container, like a gourd. In particular, Lagenaria siceraria.
    1. (originally) The fruit of such a vine.
  2. A tree grown for its fruit, which can be harvested mature and dried, and used as a container. In particular, Crescentia cujete.
    1. The fruit of such a tree.
  3. A utensil traditionally made of the dried shell of a calabash and used as a bottle, dipper, utensil or pipe, etc.
    1. A musical instrument, most commonly a drum or rattle, made from a calabash.

Quotations

  • For usage examples of this term, see Citations:calabash.

Synonyms

Translations