▪ I. melon1
(ˈmɛlən)
Forms: 4–6 melone, -oun, 6 millian, milon, myl(l)on, milion, mylyon, 6–7 mellon, millon, 7 millen, 6–8, 9 dial. million, 7 mealon, meloune, milleon, 5– melon.
[a. F. melon = Sp. melon, Pg. melão, It. melone, ad. late L. mēlōn-em, mēlo, prob. a colloquial formation on the first element of L. mēlopepo: see melopepon.]
1. a. A name common to several kinds of gourds, esp. the musk melon, Cucumis Melo, and the water melon, Citrullus vulgaris. (Applied both to the fruit and to the plant producing it.)
| a 1387 Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.) 33/2 Pepones, melones. 1388 Wyclif Num. xi. 5 Gourdis, and melouns [Vulg. pepones], and lekis,..comen in to mynde to vs. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 190 Do þerto seed of melonis maad clene. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. v. 94 Cucumber now is sowe; Melones, peletur, cappare, and leek. 1530 Palsgr. 245/1 Myllon a frute, melon. 1542 Boorde Dyetary xxi. (1870) 285 Mylons doth ingender euyl humoures. 1563 T. Hill Art Garden. (1593) 147 Melons, and all kindes of the Pompions, desire..the same earth and aire which the Citrones and Cucumbers doe. 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden xcix, Citruls or Turkey Millions are of the same temperature as the Gourd. 1691 Lond. Gaz. No. 2724/2 A piece of pure Gold in form of a Mellon. 1748 Chesterfield Let. 13 Dec. Misc. Wks. 1777 II. 347 Could you send me..some seed of the right canteloupe melons? 1824 Loudon Encycl. Gard. iii. i. (ed. 2) 4208 The pumpkin, pumpion, or more correctly, pompion... This is the melon or millon of our early horticulturists, the true melon being formerly distinguished by the name of musk-melon. 1847 Tennyson Princess Conclus. 87 A raiser of huge melons and of pine. 1855 Delamer Kitch. Gard. (1861) 118 A pretty little old-fashioned variety,—Queen Anne's Pocket Melon..produces green-fleshed well-flavoured fruit, the size of a large orange. |
b. prickly melon: the
durian.
| 1640 Parkinson Theat. Bot. 1640 Duriones, the prickly fruitfull Melon. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 83/1 The prickly Melon. |
c. to cut the melon, to decide a question.
| 1911 H. Quick Yellowstone Nights xii. 308 The O.M. as usual cuts the melon with a word. |
d. Abundant profits to be shared among a number of people. Esp. in
phr. to cut the melon. Hence
melon-cutting vbl. n., in Stock Exchange and Betting slang, the dividing up or sharing of profits.
| 1908 Daily Report 24 Aug. 2/4 The theory that any prospective melon-cutting will be postponed until next year. 1909 N.Y. Even. Post (Semi-Weekly ed.) 7 Oct. 2 A purse of $25,000 will be distributed among employees. About 8,000 men will participate in the cutting of the melon. 1911 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 11 Apr. 14/2 The Suez Canal..has been earning a gross revenue of upward of $20,000,000 a year, forming one of the juiciest melons every year anywhere in the world. 1927 C. A. & M. R. Beard Rise Amer. Civilization II. xx. 203 All went well until The Credit Mobilier in 1868 ‘cut a melon’ in the form of dividends composed of the stocks and bonds of the Union Pacific. 1927 Sunday Express 24 July 6/4 As the company distributed some Preference shares only a short while ago we should think it unlikely there will be any further melon-cutting yet. 1928 Weekly Dispatch 24 June 6/4 The Union Pacific's portfolio [of outside investments] is one of the biggest potential ‘melons’ on the American horizon. 1939 New Statesman 7 Jan. 7/1 The enemy could practically destroy our commerce and industry... Every nation of the world would have an incentive to have a free cut at the melon. 1941 Dice & Eiteman Stock Market (ed. 2) 462 Cutting a melon, the declaration of a large extra dividend. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §734/6 Melon cutting, the division of heavy winnings by a group of bettors. Ibid. §745/7 Melon cutting, the division of heavy winnings by a group of gamblers. 1948 Aurora (Illinois) Beacon News 7 Nov. (Suppl.) 39/2 This year, a record number of your friends and neighbors will split a record ‘melon’ in our 1948 savings clubs. 1964 P. Wyckoff Dict. Stock Market Terms 163 Melon, slang expression referring to the sum total of extraordinary profits waiting to be divided. |
e. = melon pink below.
| 1930 Maerz & Paul Dict. Color 199/1 Melon... Melon Yellow. 1975 Harper's & Queen June 172/3 Striped swimsuit... Cassis, citron, melon,..chocolate. |
2. Conch. The shell of a mollusc of the genus
Melo. Also
melon-shell,
melon-volute (see 4 d).
| 1840 Swainson Malacology 67. |
3. A hemispherical mass of blubber taken from the top of the head of certain cetaceans.
| 1887 G. B. Goode, etc. Fisheries U.S. Sect. v. II. 299 About 30 gallons of oil..being obtained from each fish, besides about 6 quarts of extra oil from the melon. The melons are taken from the top of the head [etc.]. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. a. simple attributive, as
melon-bank,
melon-bed,
melon-flower,
melon-frame,
melon-garden,
melon-ground,
melon-harvest,
melon-infusion,
melon-leaf,
melon-merchant,
melon-monger,
melon-patch,
melon-pit,
melon-plant,
melon-plot,
melon-seed,
melon-vine.
b. parasynthetic, as
melon-formed,
melon-shaped adjs. c. similative, as
melon-yellow adj. d. Special
Comb.:
melon-beetle, a beetle of the genus
Diabrotica,
esp. D. vittata and
D. duodecimpunctata, injurious to melons (Webster 1897 and
Suppl. 1902);
melon-blubber = melon1 3 (
Cent. Dict.);
melon-cactus = melocactus;
melon-caterpillar, the larva of an American moth,
Phacellura (Eudioptis) hyalinata, destructive to melons;
† melon-feast, a rustic gathering at which prizes were offered for the finest melons;
melon-fruit, the papaw,
Carica Papaya, called also Tree-Melon (Bartlett
Dict. Amer. 1859);
melon-hood, a kind of fungus,
Hygrophorus pratensis;
melon-oil, the oil of the melon of a cetacean;
melon pink, a yellowish-pink colour;
† melon-pompion (
obs.),
melon-pumpkin,
Cucurbita maxima or
C. Melopepo;
melon-seed bodies Path. (see
quot. 1890);
melon-shell = sense 2;
melon-thick (
W. Indian),
melon-thistle = melocactus;
melon-tree, the papaw (
Cassell's Encycl. Dict. 1885);
melon-volute, a melon-shell;
melon-ware (see
quot.);
melon-wood, a yellow Mexican wood, which resembles sanders-wood, used for furniture (
Treas. Bot. 1866);
melon-worm = melon-caterpillar (
Cent. Dict. 1890).
| 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 174 They thrive best..in such places as they have not grown in before, especially on the sides of *Melon Banks. |
| 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. (1630) 25, I call my selfe his sonne,..since that from that *Mellon-bed I was made legitimate by the holy right of Matrimony. 1794 M{supc}Phail Cult. Cucumber 83 The seeds are sown some time about the middle of April in a cucumber or melon bed. |
| 1857 A. Gray First Less. Bot. (1866) 47 In *Melon-Cactuses..with their globular or bulb-like shapes. |
| 1885 Riverside Nat. Hist. (1888) II. 444 The *melon-caterpillar, Eudioptis hyalinata, which occurs throughout the greater portions of North America and South America. |
| 1826 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. 4 Lending his willing aid in waiting and entertaining..at pink-feasts and *melon-feasts. |
| 1845 Browning Home Thoughts, The buttercups, the little children's dower—Far brighter than this gaudy *melon-flower! |
| 1819 Hermit in London III. 170 Her *melon-formed head and double chin. |
| 1793 Trans. Soc. Arts XI. 120 Over the whole, [I] placed a large *melon-frame. |
| ? a 1642 Killigrew Parson's Wedd. v. i. (1663) 138 One of the Watermen is gone to the *Mellon Garden. |
| 1733 Miller Gard. Dict. (ed. 2), Melonry or *Melon-ground. 1774 Heroic Epist. to Sir W. Chambers (ed. 13) 9 From his melon-ground the peasant slave Has rudely rush'd. |
| 1849 M. Arnold Strayed Reveller 24 Worms I' the unkind spring have gnaw'd Their *melon-harvest to the heart. |
| 1887 Hay Brit. Fungi 99 Hygrophorus pratensis, the *Melon-hood. |
| 1881 Tyndall Ess. Floating Matter Air 173 The tubes in one of the chambers containing *melon-infusion had become rapidly turbid. |
| 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. i. 98 A broad *melon-leaf. |
| 1727 S. Switzer Pract. Gard. ii. vii. 55 Good glasses, without which the *melon-merchant can't effect his purpose. |
| 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf ii. 59, I am like a *Melon-mongers Knife cutting here a slice and there a slice. |
| 1887 G. B. Goode, etc. Fisheries U.S. Sect. v. II. 309 The *melon oil of the black⁓fish. |
| 1838 Gosse in E. Gosse Life (1890) 136 At length we reached the *melon-patch. |
| 1949 Dict. Colours for Interior Decoration (Brit. Colour Council) III. 17/2 *Melon pink,..a descriptive colour name, from the fruit, used in the textile trade. 1975 Country Life 6 Mar. 561/2 Daylilies..provide a show of yellows, melon pinks and apricots. |
| 1824 Loudon Encycl. Gard. iii. 1. (ed. 2) §2684 Knight's *melon-pit,..which may also be applied to the culture of cucumbers. |
| 1739 Miller Gard. Dict. II. s.v. Melo, The Papers..may be used for covering your *Melon-plants. |
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 63 When they grow rounde, they are *Melon-pompeons. |
| 1840 Paxton Bot. Dict., *Melon-pumpkin see Cucurbita Melopepo. |
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 176 Now *melon seed too foote atwene is sette. 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 261 An incision was made into the..tumour,..and a quantity of clear fluid containing numbers of ‘melon-seed’ bodies pressed out. 1890 Syd. Soc. Lex., Melon seed bodies, small, white, or brownish-looking bodies resembling melon seeds in shape. They are found in the sheaths of tendons which have been inflamed and in adventitious..bursæ. |
| 1832 Lindley Introd. Bot. 374 *Melon-shaped, irregularly spherical, with projecting ribs; as the stem of Cactus melocactus: a bad term. |
| 1840 Swainson Malacology 100 The pre-eminently typical volutes, or *melon-shells. |
| 1864 Grisebach Flora W. Ind. 785 *Melon-thick, Melocactus communis. |
| 1731–3 Miller Gard. Dict. (ed. 2), Melocactus..*Melon-Thistle. The whole Plant hath a singular Appearance. |
| 1763 Mills Syst. Pract. Husb. IV. 182 The *melon vines will waste themselves by running out in length. |
| 1840 Swainson Malacology 99 The truncated and wide-mouthed helmet-shells, among the Muricidæ, find their prototypes in the *melon volutes. |
| 1883 Solon Art O. Eng. Potter 101 The pieces upon which this fruit was introduced all went by the name of *melon-ware, and so were styled also the generality of pieces mottled green and yellow. |
| 1773 Phil. Trans. LXIII. 391 An Anemone, whose limbs are of the *melon-yellow colour. |
Sense 4 in
Dict. becomes 5. Add:
4. pl. colloq. Large breasts.
| 1972 Pussycat XXXIII. lix. 10/2 She released the catch on her bra and slipped it off... Her full and shapely melons swung and swayed and drooped as she moved. 1991 G. Keillor WLT, Radio Romance xiii. 107 The ones with the melons, they get a little old on the hoof, and you have to throw a flag over them feedsacks so they don't bang you on the head, so you want a woman with nice little titties. |
▪ II. ‖ melon2 Path. (
ˈmiːlɒn)
[= F. melon, a. Gr. µῆλον apple, protuberance of the eye (Paulus ægineta).] A kind of exophthalmus or staphyloma.
| 1676 J. Cooke Marrow Chirurg. 713 If the protuberance be..great, 'tis called Staphyloma... If it thrust out more, that it over-reaches the Eye-lid, 'tis called Melon, like an Apple hanging by the Stalk. 1802 W. Turton Med. Gloss., Melon..a protuberance of the ball of the eye from its socket. 1890 in Syd. Soc. Lex. |
▪ III. melon3 Australian.
(
ˈmɛlən)
Short for
paddymelon. Also
attrib., in
melon-hole.
| 1847 Leichhardt Jrnl. iii. 77 The shallow depressions of the surface of the ground, which are significantly termed by the squatters ‘melon-holes’. 1898 Morris Austral Eng., Melon. Besides its botanical use, the word is applied in Australia to a small kangaroo, the Paddy-melon. Melon-hole, a kind of honey-combing of the surface in the interior plains, dangerous to horsemen, ascribed to the work of the Paddy-melon... The name is often given to any similar series of holes, such as are sometimes produced by the growing of certain plants. |
▪ IV. melon variant of
mellone Chem.