calabash

Noun

calabash (plural calabashes)

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...1821, Alexander de Humboldt [i.e., Alexander von Humboldt]; Aimé Bonpland, chapter XXI, in Helen Maria Williams, transl., Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New...
   • There was a teacher who taught children to read under a calabash tree, and this teacher's name was Goso.1870, “Goso, the Teacher”, in Edward Steere, transl., Swahili Tales, as Told by Natives of Zanzibar. With an English Translation, London: Bell & Daldy, […], →OCLC, page 287
2. 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...1839 January, “L.”, “The Calabash (Cucurbita Lagenaria)”, in The Visitor, or Monthly Instructor, London: The Religious Tract Society; … sold by John Davis, […], →OCLC, page 75
   • CALABASH GOURD (LAGENARIA SICERARIA) […] Appropriately bowing to AHP, the American Herbal Products Association, for the betterment of the herbal industry, I will now use its standardized common name, Calabash Gourd, a vine, not to be confused with the Calabash tree (Crescentia).2008, James A. Duke, with Peggy-Ann K. Duke and Judith L. duCellie, “Catalog of ‘Faith-based’ Farmaceuticals”, in Duke’s Handbook of Medicinal Plants of the Bible, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN...

   Synonyms:

   dudhi, lauki

3. 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...1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton, […], J[ohn] Graves […], A[nne] Dodd, […], and T[homas] Warner, […], →OCLC...
   • [T]he manner of separating the gold from the sand, is very simple, and is frequently performed by the women in the middle of the town; for when the searchers return from the valleys in the evening, they commonly bring with them each a calabash or two of sand, to be washed by such of the females as...1799, Mungo Park, “Of Gold-dust, and the Manner in which It is Collected.—Process of Washing it.— […]”, in Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa: Performed under the Direction and Patronage of...

   Synonyms:

   gourd

4. 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.1981, T[homas] Coraghessan Boyle, “The Niger”, in Water Music, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, →ISBN; republished London: Granta Books, 1998, →ISBN
   • It was dusk by the time Yandi reappeared, carrying a calabash of parboiled rice and a peanut and chili sauce on his head.2015, Michael [D.] Jackson, “Petra’s Letter”, in Harmattan: A Philosophical Fiction, New York, N.Y.; Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, part 2 (Harmattan), page 122
5. 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....1814, Jerom Merolla da Sorrento, “A Voyage to Congo, and Several Other Countries, Chiefly in Southern Africk. […]”, in John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages...
6. (US, archaic, humorous, slang) The head.
   • ‘What d’ye say about rewardin’ this yer young gent, as walloped his chum on the callybash to help us?’ Ben called after them.1930, Captain Dingle, “In Shanghaied” (chapter 2), in Seaworthy, Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, page 17

   Synonyms:

   bean, beaner, belfry, block, bonce, brainbox, brain bucket, dome, head, loaf