calabash
calabash Lexical Profile
• noun
A dried, hollowed-out gourd shell used as a traditional bowl, water container, ladle, resonating chamber for percussion and stringed musical instruments, or curved smoking pipe.
"The host offered the travelers cool water served in a finely carved calabash."
The smooth-skinned, light-green fruit of the bottle gourd vine (Lagenaria siceraria), harvested while young and tender to be cooked and eaten as a culinary vegetable in Asian, African, and Caribbean cuisines.
"She diced the young calabash and simmered it with lentils, garlic, and turmeric for dinner."
The large, globose, hard-shelled fruit produced by the tropical American calabash tree (Crescentia cujete) or the mature bottle gourd vine, whose woody rind is dried rather than eaten.
"High in the branches, a heavy green calabash hung directly from the trunk of the tree."
Either of two unrelated plants that bear gourd-like fruits: the tropical American calabash tree (Crescentia cujete) of the family Bignoniaceae, or the annual climbing bottle gourd vine (Lagenaria siceraria) of the family Cucurbitaceae.
"The farmer trained the fast-growing calabash along a wooden trellis at the edge of the garden."
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 16th century from French calebasse, from Spanish calabaza ('gourd' or 'pumpkin'), of uncertain ultimate origin, possibly from a pre-Roman Iberian root or Arabic qar'a yābisa ('dry gourd').
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.