calabash
Meanings
Plural: calabashes
Noun
- round gourd of the calabash tree
- tropical American evergreen that produces large round gourds
- Old World climbing plant with hard-shelled bottle-shaped gourds as fruits
- bottle made from the dried shell of a bottle gourd
- a pipe for smoking; has a curved stem and a large bowl made from a calabash gourd
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- A calabash and its contents; as much as fills such a container.
- A musical instrument, most commonly a drum or rattle, made from a calabash fruit.
Origin / 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).
Synonyms
bottle gourd, calabash pipe, calabash tree, Crescentia cujete, dudhi, gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, lauki
Scrabble Score: 15
calabash is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordcalabash is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
calabash is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary