gourd

Everyday

1. A large fruit with a hard skin, related to pumpkins and melons, often dried and hollowed out. tree →
2. A container, bottle or bowl made from a dried gourd, used for water or as a musical rattle. tree →
3. (US, slang) Out of your gourd means crazy or silly. tree →

In the lessons

In history and geography lessons gourds are early water bottles and instruments (maracas); at Halloween and harvest festivals, decorative gourds. Phrases: a water gourd, a gourd rattle, out of your gourd.

Examples

• The traveller drank water from a gourd. tree →
• We painted gourds for the harvest festival. tree →
• Maracas were first made from dried gourds. tree →
• Pumpkins, squashes and gourds belong to the same family. tree →
• In Argentina people drink mate tea from a gourd. tree →
• Are you out of your gourd? It's snowing and you're in shorts! tree →
• Here he was seized with dreadful thirst; he took his gourd and raised it to his lips. tree →

Note

Say GORD or GOORD. Plural gourds. Most decorative gourds are not good to eat. Out of your gourd is informal US slang.

In Jewish tradition

A plant God made grow over Jonah to shade him, and then sent a worm to kill.

Interpretation. Tradition reads the gourd as a lesson: Jonah pitied a plant he never grew, so God asks if He should not pity the great city of Nineveh and its people. The story is read on Yom Kippur afternoon.

Examples

• So Jonah was exceeding glad because of the gourd. (Prophets JON.4.6, JPS 1917) tree →
• But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered. (Prophets JON.4.7, JPS 1917) tree →
• And God said to Jonah: 'Art thou greatly angry for the gourd?' And he said: 'I am greatly angry, even unto death.' (Prophets JON.4.9, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Say GORD or GOORD. Plural gourds. Most decorative gourds are not good to eat. Out of your gourd is informal US slang.