MELON • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Melon

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/mˈɛlən/ Listen

noun

Melon n.

(Bot.) The juicy fruit of certain cucurbitaceous plants, as the muskmelon, watermelon, and citron melon; also, the plant that produces the fruit.

(Zool.) A large, ornamental, marine, univalve shell of the genus Melo.

Melon beetle (Zool.), a small leaf beetle (Diabrotiea vittata), which damages the leaves of melon vines.

Melon cactus, Melon thistle.

(a)

(Bot.) A genus of cactaceous plants (Melocactus) having a fleshy and usually globose stem with the surface divided into spiny longitudinal ridges, and bearing at the top a prickly and woolly crown in which the small pink flowers are half concealed. Melocactus communis, from the West Indies, is often cultivated, and sometimes called Turk's cap.

(b)

The related genus Mamillaria, in which the stem is tubercled rather than ribbed, and the flowers sometimes large.

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Etymology of 'Melon'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Melon" Quotes from Famous Books

... The Melon and Cucumber.—These exotic fruits are extensively cultivated; the latter takes various shapes in our bills of fare; the former is more a luxury than a fruit for general use; their culture on hot-beds forms a material branch of modern gardening, ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Issue 281, November 3, 1827 • Various

... omnibuses, factory hands, and sailors. After he had become well known, he was unconventional enough to sit with a street car driver in front of a grocery store in a crowded city and eat a watermelon. When people smiled, he said, "They can have the laugh—we have the melon." ...

— History of American Literature • Reuben Post Halleck

... friend, Mr. Hodgson), a gigantic climber allied to the gourd, bearing immense yellowish-white pendulous blossoms, whose petals have a fringe of buff-coloured curling threads, several inches long. The fruit is of a rich brown, like a small melon in form, and contains six large nuts, whose kernels (called "Katior-pot" by the Lepchas) are eaten. The stem, when cut, discharges water profusely from whichever end is held downwards. The "Took" (Hydnocarpus) ...

— Himalayan Journals (Complete) • J. D. Hooker

... are you looking at me like that for?" he demanded, without being able to hide a grin. "Haven't I been exercising? Haven't I? What have you got to say about it? Didn't I spade up that old melon-patch and plant sixteen rows of carrots in ...

— The Boy Scouts of the Geological Survey • Robert Shaler

... savage dogs rushing out at them from the yards of their owners, as they were peaceably passing along the street. On the other hand I have known a native imprisoned for throwing his waddy at, and injuring a pig, which was eating a melon he had laid down for a moment in the street, and when the pig ought not to have been in the street at all. In February 1842, a dog belonging to a native was shot by order of Mr. Gouger, the then Colonial Secretary, and the owner as soon as he became aware ...

— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre

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