Adjacent Words

Ecballium definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: exploding cucumber; squirting cucumber [syn: Ecballium, genus Ecballium]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ecballium Ec*bal"li*um, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ?. See Ecbole.] (Bot.) A genus of cucurbitaceous plants consisting of the single species Ecballium agreste (or Elaterium), the squirting cucumber. Its fruit, when ripe, bursts and violently ejects its seeds, together with a mucilaginous juice, from which elaterium, a powerful cathartic medicine, is prepared.