White-flowered gourd

[hwahyt-flou-erd, wahyt-] /ˈʰwaɪtˌflaʊ ərd, ˈwaɪt-/
noun
1.
See under gourd.
noun
1.
the hard-shelled fruit of any of various plants, especially those of Lagenaria siceraria (white-flowered gourd or bottle gourd) whose dried shell is used for bowls and other utensils, and Cucurbita pepo (yellow-flowered gourd) used ornamentally.
Compare gourd family.
2.
a plant bearing such a fruit.
3.
a dried and excavated gourd shell used as a bottle, dipper, flask, etc.
4.
a gourd-shaped, small-necked bottle or flask.
Idioms
5.
out of / off one’s gourd, Slang. out of one’s mind; crazy.
noun
1.
the fruit of any of various cucurbitaceous or similar plants, esp the bottle gourd and some squashes, whose dried shells are used for ornament, drinking cups, etc
2.
any plant that bears this fruit See also sour gourd, dishcloth gourd, calabash
3.
a bottle or flask made from the dried shell of the bottle gourd
4.
a small bottle shaped like a gourd
gourd

(1.) Jonah’s gourd (Jonah 4:6-10), bearing the Hebrew name _kikayon_ (found only here), was probably the kiki of the Egyptians, the croton. This is the castor-oil plant, a species of ricinus, the palma Christi, so called from the palmate division of its leaves. Others with more probability regard it as the cucurbita the el-keroa of the Arabs, a kind of pumpkin peculiar to the East. “It is grown in great abundance on the alluvial banks of the Tigris and on the plain between the river and the ruins of Nineveh.” At the present day it is trained to run over structures of mud and brush to form boots to protect the gardeners from the heat of the noon-day sun. It grows with extraordinary rapidity, and when cut or injured withers away also with great rapidity. (2.) Wild gourds (2 Kings 4:38-40), Heb. pakkuoth, belong to the family of the cucumber-like plants, some of which are poisonous. The species here referred to is probably the colocynth (Cucumis colocynthus). The LXX. render the word by “wild pumpkin.” It abounds in the desert parts of Syria, Egypt, and Arabia. There is, however, another species, called the Cucumis prophetarum, from the idea that it afforded the gourd which “the sons of the prophets” shred by mistake into their pottage.