gourd

/gɔrd/

/gɔd/

Other forms: gourds

A gourd is a squash-like plant with a hard, colorful skin. You'll often find gourds decorating the table at Thanksgiving.

You can think of gourds as decorative fruit — like a squash, a gourd's not a vegetable, strictly speaking, but unlike squash, most gourds aren't much good for eating. In fact, the word is often used for the dried, hollowed skin of a gourd, which has been used for centuries as a container, musical instrument, scoop, or drinking vessel. If someone says, "You're out of your gourd!" they mean you've lost your senses.

Definitions of gourd

1. noun

   any vine of the family Cucurbitaceae that bears fruits with hard rinds
   synonyms: gourd vine

   types:

   Cucurbita foetidissima, Missouri gourd, buffalo gourd, calabazilla, prairie gourd, prairie gourd vine, wild pumpkin

   perennial vine of dry parts of central and southwestern United States and Mexico having small hard mottled green inedible fruit

   melon, melon vine

   any of various fruit of cucurbitaceous vines including: muskmelons; watermelons; cantaloupes; cucumbers

   Ecballium elaterium, exploding cucumber, squirting cucumber, touch-me-not

   Mediterranean vine having oblong fruit that when ripe expels its seeds and juice violently when touched

   Lagenaria siceraria, bottle gourd, calabash

   Old World climbing plant with hard-shelled bottle-shaped gourds as fruits

   Momordica balsamina, balsam apple

   a tropical Old World flowering vine with red or orange warty fruit

   Momordica charantia, balsam pear, bitter gourd, bitter melon

   tropical Old World vine with yellow-orange fruit

   Citrullus vulgaris, watermelon, watermelon vine

   an African melon

   Cucumis melo, muskmelon, sweet melon, sweet melon vine

   any of several varieties of vine whose fruit has a netted rind and edible flesh and a musky smell

   Cucumis sativus, cucumber, cucumber vine

   a melon vine of the genus Cucumis; cultivated from earliest times for its cylindrical green fruit

   type of:

   vine

   a plant with a weak stem that derives support from climbing, twining, or creeping along a surface
2. noun

   any of numerous inedible fruits with hard rinds
   types:

   calabash

   round gourd of the calabash tree

   type of:

   fruit

   the ripened reproductive body of a seed plant
3. noun

   bottle made from the dried shell of a bottle gourd
   synonyms: calabash

   type of:

   bottle

   a glass or plastic vessel used for storing drinks or other liquids; typically cylindrical without handles and with a narrow neck that can be plugged or capped