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Definition of Squirting cucumber
1. Noun. Mediterranean vine having oblong fruit that when ripe expels its seeds and juice violently when touched.
Generic synonyms: Gourd, Gourd Vine
Group relationships: Ecballium, Genus Ecballium
Definition of Squirting cucumber
1. Noun. The plant ''Ecballium elaterium'', a member of the cucumber family (''Cucurbitaceae''), so named because when the fruit is fully ripe it squirts a stream of mucilaginous liquid containing its seeds. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Lexicographical Neighbors of Squirting Cucumber
Literary usage of Squirting cucumber
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. A Dictionary of the Bible: Comprising Its Antiquities, Biography, Geography by William Smith, John Mee Fuller (1893)
"Now in the hill-country the globe cucumber and the squirting cucumber are common
weeds ... The squirting cucumber, though slightly bitter, is not nauseous, ..."
2. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1918)
"The squirting cucumber is a small perennial, of the cucumber family, indigenous
in Persia, India and the warmer Oriental countries, and has been extensively ..."
3. Interesting Neighbors by Oliver Peebles Jenkins (1922)
"But the strangest one was a plant called the "squirting cucumber." This is a sort
of wild cucumber that grows in some parts of Europe. ..."
4. The Popular Science Monthly (1891)
"Naturally, the squirting cucumber knows its own business bert, ... the squirting
cucumber IB bitter and nauseous, and if it gets into tLt eyes or nostrils ..."