cucumber
- a creeping plant, Cucumis sativus, of the gourd family, occurring in many cultivated forms.
- the edible, fleshy fruit of this plant, of a cylindrical shape with rounded ends and having a green, warty skin.
- any of various allied or similar plants.
- the fruit of any such plant.
Origin of cucumber
Examples from the Web for cucumber
Contemporary Examples
Try explaining what a cucumber tastes like to a 19th century Inuit.
Together, we decide that the drink should be called a Cucumber Superlative.
“That scallop dish is just a raw scallop with a grilled cucumber and cucumber vinaigrette,” said McGarry.
Basil, cucumber, mangoes, the cooing of turtledoves on torrid afternoons, the screech of buses coming to a sudden halt.
One is to put Jason Bateman and Will Arnett in a bathtub together, with fluffy white facial masks and cucumber eye coolers.
Historical Examples
The cucumber should be boiled for five minutes before it is fried.
The Cook's Decameron: A Study in Taste:Mrs. W. G. Waters
However, it is not him, for there he is, looking as cool as a cucumber.
At Aboukir and AcreGeorge Alfred Henty
So I felt like a cucumber pickle but now I don't mind it at all.
Mary Rose of MifflinFrances R. Sterrett
Although the Sioux chiefs were told of the danger, they were "as cool about it as a cucumber."
Three Years on the PlainsEdmund B. Tuttle
The next moment, a cucumber caught Silvey squarely in the eye.
A Son of the CityHerman Gastrell Seely
cucumber
- a creeping cucurbitaceous plant, Cucumis sativus, cultivated in many forms for its edible fruitCompare squirting cucumber
- the cylindrical fruit of this plant, which has hard thin green rind and white crisp flesh
- any of various similar or related plants or their fruits
- cool as a cucumber very calm; self-possessed
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for cucumber
n.
late 14c., from Old French cocombre (13c., Modern French concombre), from Latin cucumerem (nominative cucumis), perhaps from a pre-Italic Mediterranean language. The Latin word also is the source of Italian cocomero, Spanish cohombro, Portuguese cogombro. Replaced Old English eorþæppla (plural), literally "earth-apples."
Cowcumber was common form 17c.-18c., and that pronunciation lingered into 19c. Planted as a garden vegetable by 1609 by Jamestown colonists. Phrase cool as a cucumber (c.1732) embodies ancient folk knowledge confirmed by science in 1970: inside of a field cucumber on a warm day is 20 degrees cooler than the air temperature.
Idioms and Phrases with cucumber
cucumber
see cool as a cucumber.