mirlitons

Noun

mirliton (plural mirlitons)

1. A pear-shaped vegetable or its vine; the chayote.
   • To start your mirliton plant, buy the fruit in a produce-oriented market in spring and plant it in full sunlight in fertile, well-drained soil, leaving the stem half of the fruit out of the ground.1988, Rosalind Creasy, Cooking from the garden, page 141
2. The eunuch flute, a kind of kazoo or membranophone.
   • In form the mirlitons resembled flutes, shawms, or other instruments, and were generally furnished with a parchment membrane.1975, Sibyl Marcuse, A survey of musical instruments, page 172
3. An 18th-century hussar hat resembling a slightly conical shako or tall fez.
   • Headwear: This was either the colpack or the mirliton. Regiments No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9 wore the former; 5, 6, 7 and 8 the latter.1985, Emir Bukhari, Napoleon's Line Chasseurs, page 33
4. A tartlet or biscuit garnished with almond, first produced in Rouen around 1800.
   • […] Have moulds prepared as for the mirlitons of Rouen; fill them and finish in the same manner.1827, Antoine B. Beauvilliers, The art of French cookery