gourd
Americannoun
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gourds
plural
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the hard-shelled fruit of any of various plants, especially those of Lagenaria siceraria white-flowered gourd, or bottle gourd, whose dried shell is used for bowls and other utensils, and Cucurbita pepo yellow-flowered gourd, used ornamentally.
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a plant bearing such a fruit.
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a dried and excavated gourd shell used as a bottle, dipper, flask, etc.
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a gourd-shaped, small-necked bottle or flask.
idioms
noun
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the fruit of any of various cucurbitaceous or similar plants, esp the bottle gourd and some squashes, whose dried shells are used for ornament, drinking cups, etc
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any plant that bears this fruit See also sour gourd dishcloth gourd calabash
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a bottle or flask made from the dried shell of the bottle gourd
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a small bottle shaped like a gourd
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gourd
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English gourd(e), courde, from Anglo-French ( Old French cöorde ), from Latin cucurbita
Explanation
A gourd is a squash-like plant with a hard, colorful skin. You'll often find gourds decorating the table at Thanksgiving. You can think of gourds as decorative fruit — like a squash, a gourd's not a vegetable, strictly speaking, but unlike squash, most gourds aren't much good for eating. In fact, the word is often used for the dried, hollowed skin of a gourd, which has been used for centuries as a container, musical instrument, scoop, or drinking vessel. If someone says, "You're out of your gourd!" they mean you've lost your senses.
Vocabulary lists containing gourd
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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.
See Examples For:
Consider a slice of pumpkin pie: This is “prime pumpkin season” in Illinois, the country’s top supplier of the gourd, said Jacob Goebbert, co-owner and operations manager of a farm in South Barrington, Ill.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
The name comes from a one-minute skit in which a son politely refuses a bowl of gourd soup from his mother but eventually he gets blamed for being ill-tempered.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
While she prefers traditional orange, Torres isn’t afraid of a more ghostly gourd.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2025
"The story of the bottle gourd is a testament to the plant's resilience and its enduring significance to humanity," noted Fei.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 20, 2024
While Tree-ear cleaned his wound, Crane-man took the strip of cloth and washed it thoroughly with water from the gourd bowl, scrubbing it against a flat stone at the river’s edge.
From "A Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park
The race to grow ever-larger gourds has unleashed a blitz of one-upsmanship at contests around the globe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2025
Earlier research from Inui and his team revealed that gourds contain a type of protein that binds to pollutants, allowing them to move through the plant's tissues.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2025
The dining table, which is the star of the holiday, can be decorated with an eye-catching centerpiece that contains candles, greenery, pumpkins and gourds.
From Salon ● Nov. 23, 2024
It’s turtlenecks and quality sweaters, buying decorative gourds for an evening dinner party and coupling up for cuffing season, if not longer term.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2024
“Show Papi your lines,” Lili told the boy as she arranged the three open gourds on a piece of plywood raised like a table on two bricks, in the middle of the room.
From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat
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.
