elaterium
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of elaterium
C16: from Latin, from Greek elatērion squirting cucumber, from elatērios purgative, from elaunein to drive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Amid the wayside rubbish grows one of the gourd family, Ecbalium elaterium, commonly called the squirting cucumber, whose fruit—a rough and extremely bitter little cucumber—is the size of a date.
From The Life of the Spider by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander
It forms colourless scales which have a bitter taste, but it is highly inadvisable to taste either this substance or elaterium.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 2 "Ehud" to "Electroscope" by Various
The juice of the unripe fruit, when expressed and allowed to stand, deposits elaterium as a green sediment with an acrid taste, a faint odour, and powerful cathartic properties.
From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 2: Ebert to Estremadura by Various
It is due to the elaterium of spring.
From Of All Things by Benchley, Robert C.
Elaterin is extracted from elaterium by chloroform and then precipitated by ether.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 2 "Ehud" to "Electroscope" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
