▪ I. † cucurbit1 Obs.
(kjuːˈkɜːbɪt)
Forms: 4 concurbite, cocurbite, 4–9 cucurbite, 6–9 cucurbit.
[a. F. cucurbite, ad. L. cucurbita a gourd, also a cupping-glass, in med. or mod.L., as in F. and Eng. (The living F. descendant of late L. curbita is courde, changed in mod.F. to courge, gourd.)]
1. A vessel or retort, originally gourd-shaped, used in distillation and other chemical (or alchemical) processes, or for keeping liquids, etc., in; forming the lower part of an alembic.
| c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 241 Cucurbites [v.r. concurbites, cocurbites] and Alambikes eek. 1576 Baker Jewell of Health 8 The same substance closed uppe in a Cucurbite or Glasse bodie. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. Digress. 368 To distill Liquors out of tall Cucurbits. 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. II. xiii. 22 The alembic consists of two pieces, a boiler or cucurbit, and a covering called a capital or head. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 25 Other substances..are..charred in cylinders or cucurbits. |
2. A cupping-glass.
| 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 E iij, The sayd medycament draweth to it from all the body in y⊇ maner as cucurbyte and ventose doth the excrementes and superfluytees. |
3. Comb., as cucurbit-glass.
| 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 209 Setting the new-invented Cucurbit-Glasses of Beer mingled with Honey to entice Wasps, Flies, etc. |
▪ II. cucurbit2
[mod. ad. L. cucurbita gourd. (In the sense ‘gourd’ L. curbita was already adopted in OE. in the form cyrfet.)]
A cucurbitaceous plant; a gourd.
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 358 Cucurbitaceæ..Cucurbits, the Cucumber and Gourd family. 1880 F. W. Burbidge Gard. Sun 81 We saw a pretty white-flowered cucurbit growing over bushes here and there. |