Adjacent Words

Melon definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MEL'ON, n. [L. melo; Gr. an apple; L. mollis.] The name of certain plants and their fruit, as the water-melon, the musk-melon.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any of numerous fruits of the gourd family having a hard rind and sweet juicy flesh
2: any of various fruit of cucurbitaceous vines including: muskmelons; watermelons; cantaloupes; cucumbers [syn: melon, melon vine]

Merriam Webster's

noun Usage: often attributive Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin melon-, melo, short for Latin melopepon-, melopepo, from Greek m?lopep?n, from m?lon apple + pep?n, an edible gourd — more at pumpkin Date: 14th century 1. any of various typically sweet gourds (as a muskmelon or watermelon) usually eaten raw as fruits 2. something rounded like a melon: as a. the rounded organ in the front of the head of some cetaceans b. plural, slang large breasts 3. a. a surplus of profits available for distribution to stockholders b. a financial windfall

Britannica Concise

Any of the seven groups of Cucumis melo, a trailing vine grown for its edible, sweet, musky-scented fruit. Members of the horticulturally diverse gourd family, melons are frost-tender annuals native to central Asia but widely grown in many cultivated varieties in warm regions worldwide. They have soft, hairy, trailing stems, large round to lobed leaves, yellow flowers, and large flat seeds. The fruits of the numerous cultivated varieties differ greatly in size, shape, surface texture, flesh color, flavor, and weight. Examples include cantaloupe, honeydew, and casaba. Plants resembling true melons include the watermelon, the Chinese watermelon, the melon tree (see papaya), and the melon shrub, or pear melon (Solanum muricatum).

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the sweet fruit of various gourds. 2 the gourd producing this (honeydew melon; water melon). Phrases and idioms: cut the melon 1 decide a question. 2 share abundant profits among a number of people. Etymology: ME f. OF f. LL melo -onis abbr. of L melopepo f. Gk melopepon f. melon apple + pepon gourd f. pepon ripe

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Melon Mel"on, n. [F., fr. L. melo, for melopepo an apple-shaped melon, Gr. ?; ? apple + ? a species of large melon; cf. L. malum apple. Cf. Marmalade.] 1. (Bot.) The juicy fruit of certain cucurbitaceous plants, as the muskmelon, watermelon, and citron melon; also, the plant that produces the fruit. 2. (Zo["o]l.) A large, ornamental, marine, univalve shell of the genus Melo. Melon beetle (Zo["o]l.), a small leaf beetle (Diabrotiea vittata), which damages the leaves of melon vines. Melon cactus, Melon thistle. (a) (Bot.) A genus of cactaceous plants (Melocactus) having a fleshy and usually globose stem with the surface divided into spiny longitudinal ridges, and bearing at the top a prickly and woolly crown in which the small pink flowers are half concealed. M. communis, from the West Indies, is often cultivated, and sometimes called Turk's cap. (b) The related genus Mamillaria, in which the stem is tubercled rather than ribbed, and the flowers sometimes large. See Illust. under Cactus.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(melons) A melon is a large fruit which is sweet and juicy inside and has a hard green or yellow skin. N-VAR