Adjacent Words

Cucumber definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CUCUMBER, n. [L.] The name of a plant and its fruit, of the genus Cucumis. The flower is yellow and bell-shaped; and the stalks are long, slender and trailing on the ground, or climbing by their claspers.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a melon vine of the genus Cucumis; cultivated from earliest times for its cylindrical green fruit [syn: cucumber, cucumber vine, Cucumis sativus]
2: cylindrical green fruit with thin green rind and white flesh eaten as a vegetable; related to melons [syn: cucumber, cuke]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French cucumbre, from Latin cucumer-, cucumis Date: 14th century the fruit of a vine (Cucumis sativus) of the gourd family cultivated as a garden vegetable; also this vine

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a long green fleshy fruit, used in salads. 2 the climbing plant, Cucumis sativus, yielding this fruit. Etymology: ME f. OF co(u)combre f. L cucumer

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cucumber Cu"cum*ber (k?`k?m-b?r, formerly kou"k?m-b?r), n.[OE. cucumer, cocumber, cucumber, fr. L. cucmis, gen. cucumeris; cf. OF. cocombre,F. concombre.] (Bot.) A creeping plant, and its fruit, of several species of the genus Cucumis, esp. Cucumis sativus, the unripe fruit of which is eaten either fresh or picked. Also, similar plants or fruits of several other genera. See below. Bitter cucumber (Bot.), the Citrullus or Cucumis Colocynthis. See Colocynth. Cucumber beetle. (Zo["o]l.) (a) A small, black flea-beetle (Crepidodera cucumeris), which destroys the leaves of cucumber, squash, and melon vines. (b) The squash beetle. Cucumber tree. (a) A large ornamental or shade tree of the genus Magnolia (M. acuminata), so called from a slight resemblance of its young fruit to a small cucumber. (b) An East Indian plant (Averrhoa Bilimbi) which produces the fruit known as bilimbi. Jamaica cucumber, Jerusalem cucumber, the prickly-fruited gherkin (Cucumis Anguria). Snake cucumber, a species (Cucumis flexuosus) remarkable for its long, curiously-shaped fruit. Squirting cucumber, a plant (Ecbalium Elaterium) whose small oval fruit separates from the footstalk when ripe and expels its seeds and juice with considerable force through the opening thus made. See Elaterium. Star cucumber, a climbing weed (Sicyos angulatus) with prickly fruit.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(cucumbers) 1. A cucumber is a long thin vegetable with a hard green skin and wet transparent flesh. It is eaten raw in salads. N-VAR 2. If you say that someone is as cool as a cucumber, you are emphasizing that they are very calm and relaxed, especially when you would not expect them to be. You can hardly be held responsible for Darrow waltzing in, cool as a cucumber, and demanding thousands of pounds. PHRASE [emphasis]

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ku'-kum-ber (qishshu'im; sikuos): One of the articles of food for which Israel in the wilderness looked back with longing to Egypt (Nu 11:5). Cucumbers are great favorites with all the people of Palestine. Two varieties occur, Cucumis sativus (Arabic, Khyar), originally a product of Northwest India, which is smooth-skinned, whitish and of delicate flavor, and requires much water in its cultivation, and Cucumis chate (Arabic, faqqus), which is long and slender but less juicy than the former. Probably the Biblical reference is to this latter as it is a plant much grown in Egypt where it is said to attain unusual excellence.

A "garden of cucumbers" or more literally a "place of cucumbers" (miqshdh), is mentioned in Isa 1:8; Baruch 6:70. "A lodge in a garden of cucumbers" (Isa 1:8) is the rough wooden booth erected by the owner from which he keeps guard over his ripening vegetables. It is commonly raised upon poles and, when abandoned for the season, it falls into decay and presents a dreary spectacle of tottering poles and dead leaves.

E. W. G. Masterman