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Calabash
Definitions
- 1 A tree (known as the calabash tree; Crescentia cujete) native to Central and South America, the West Indies, and southern Florida, bearing large, round fruit used to make containers (sense 3); the fruit of this tree.
"As we were absolutely destitute of large vessels, to contain and mix liquids, we poured, by means of a tutuma (fruit of crescentia cujete, calabash), the water of the river into one of the holes of the rock. To this we added sugar, and the juice of acid fruits. In a few minutes we had an excellent beverage, which was almost a refinement of luxury in that wild spot; […]"
- 2 a pipe for smoking; has a curved stem and a large bowl made from a calabash gourd wordnet
- 3 The bottle gourd (calabash vine, Lagenaria siceraria), believed to have originated in Africa, which is grown for its fruit that are used as a vegetable and to make containers (sense 3); the fruit of this plant.
"The calabash, is a kind of gourd, and belongs to that family of twining plants which were called among the Hebrews, "wild vines," but by the botanists of modern times, the cucurbitaceæ, or cucurbitaceous plants. […] That playful variety of form and magnitude, so remarkable in the calabash, renders it fit for all kinds of uses. Sometimes we have a globular base, terminating in a long neck, and then it answers the purpose of a bottle, and the American fastens it to his girdle, or the pommel of his saddle, when about to pass through regions which abound not in water."
- 4 bottle made from the dried shell of a bottle gourd wordnet
- 5 A container made from the mature, dried shell of the fruit of one of the above plants; also, a similarly shaped container made from some other material.
"On Sunday, Oct. 12. being ſtored vvith all things needful for their Journey, viz. Ten Days Proviſion, a Baſin to boil their Provision in, two Calabaſhes to fetch VVater in, and tvvo great Tallipat Leaves for Tents, with Jaggory, Svveet-meats, Tobacco, Betell, Tinder-Boxes, and a Deer-Skin for Shoes, to keep their Feet from Thorns, becauſe to them they chiefly truſted."
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- 6 Old World climbing plant with hard-shelled bottle-shaped gourds as fruits wordnet
- 7 A calabash and its contents; as much as fills such a container.
"Amuta and the twelve-year-old have produced calabashes of palm wine and are busy pouring out healthy drams into the cupped hands of black and white alike."
- 8 tropical American evergreen that produces large round gourds wordnet
- 9 A musical instrument, most commonly a drum or rattle, made from a calabash fruit.
"The inſtrument moſt in requeſt uſed by the Abundi, being the people of the kingdom of Angola, Matamba, and others, is the Marimba; it conſiſts of ſixteen calabaſhes orderly placed along the middle between two ſide-boards joined together, or a long frame, hanging about a man's neck with a thong. Over the mouths of the calabaſhes there are thin ſounding ſlips of red wood called Tanilla, a little above a ſpan long, which being beaten with two little ſticks, returns a ſound from the calabaſhes of ſeveral ſizes not unlike an organ."
- 10 round gourd of the calabash tree wordnet
Etymology
From French calebasse, from Spanish calabaza (“gourd; pumpkin”), possibly from Arabic قَرْعَةٌ يَابِسَةٌ (qarʕatun yābisatun, “dry gourd”) or directly from its etymon Persian خربزه (xarboze, “melon”), possibly ultimately from Sanskrit त्रपुस (trapusa, “colocynth fruit”) (compare Persian تربزه (tarboze, “watermelon”)). The English word is cognate with Catalan carabassa (“pumpkin; orange colour”), Galician cabaza (“gourd, pumpkin, squash; calabash (container)”), Occitan calebasso, carabasso, carbasso, Portuguese cabaça (“gourd; calabash (container)”), Sicilian caravazza (and caramazza).
See also for "calabash"
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