Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An edible, gelatinous, greenish substance lying beneath the upper shell of a turtle.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In cookery, that part of a turtle which belongs to the upper shield, consisting of a fatty gelatinous substance of a dull-greenish color. Also spelled callipash.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A part of a turtle which is next to the upper shell. It contains a fatty and gelatinous substance of a dull greenish tinge, much esteemed as a delicacy in preparations of turtle.
Etymologies
- French carapace, Spanish carapacho. (Wiktionary)
- Possibly alteration of Spanish carapacho, carapace. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He would show them the pools under the Mansion House where these creatures luxuriate while awaiting their doom; he would indicate the areas beneath the shell from some of which is extracted the calipash and from some the calipee; he might even induce the Most Worshipful”
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, January 29, 1919
“Dobbin helped him to it; for the lady of the house, before whom the tureen was placed, was so ignorant of the contents, that she was going to help Mr. Sedley without bestowing upon him either calipash or calipee.”
“Even the celebrated Jew himself, when well filled with calipash and calipee, goes contentedly home to tell his money, and expects no more pleasure from his throat during the next twenty-four hours.”
“I was remarking that sangaree and calipash, mangoes and guava jelly, dispose the heart to love, and so they do.”
“The accommodation to fat citizens, and western _gourmands_, would be excellent, the very height of luxury and refinement -- inhaling the salubrious breeze one moment, and gurgling down the glutinous calipash the next; no ~277~~exactions of impudent waiters, or imposing landlords, or complaints of dying from hunger, or choking from the want of time to masticate; but every wish gratified and every sense employed.”
“The tortise — as the alderman of Bristol, well learned in eating, knows by much experience — besides the delicious calipash and calipee, contains many different kinds of food; nor can the learned reader be ignorant, that in human nature, though here collected under one general name, is such prodigious variety, that a cook will have sooner gone through all the several species of animal and vegetable food in the world, than an author will be able to exhaust so extensive a subject.”
“The tortoiseas the alderman of Bristol, well learned in eating, knows by much experiencebesides the delicious calipash and calipee, contains many different kinds of food; nor can the learned reader be ignorant, that in human nature, though here collected under one general name, is such prodigious variety, that a cook will have sooner gone through all the several species of animal and vegetable food in the world, than an author will be able to exhaust so extensive a subject.”
I. Introduction to the Work, or Bill of Fare to the Feast. Book I
“The tortoise -- as the alderman of Bristol, well learned in eating, knows by much experience -- besides the delicious calipash and calipee, contains many different kinds of food; nor can the learned reader be ignorant, that in human nature, though here collected under one general name, is such prodigious variety, that a cook will have sooner gone through all the several species of animal and vegetable food in the world, than an author will be able to exhaust so extensive a subject.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘calipash’.
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Open List: Greens
A lits of greens: cooked leafy vegetables; pigments, paint names, compound words, etc; words and phrases that pertain to or contain "green". Please add your favorites!
See this list f...greenery, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, green shoots, viridian green, malachite green, sap green, green grocer, radish greens, beet greens, spring green and 282 more...
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shells
testudinals
testudines, turtle, testudine, testudo, tortoise, scallop, triton, calipash, daphnia, carapace, gryphite, phragmacone and 62 more...
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Croquettes of Random Palavery
Another eclectic list of random words and phrases that excite or intrigue me. I'll try to tag those I make up as "madeupicals".
berberophone, chapon, clearmeat, water bailiff, daubiere, drock, pigeon racing, traveling cider m..., rictal bristles, flaming piano, burning man, peanut hay and 140 more...
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Hedgepiglet
Words for things both tangible and nonanthropic
rorqual, vellus, wrasse, rainbow bee-eater, tinkershire, lemonquat, boomslang, tufted vetch, cubeb, nipplefruit, madapple, wad and 447 more...
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Fun Words
Words that have funny meanings or are just fun to say.
kumquat, chimichanga, sarsparilla, rutabaga, rumpus, flummox, encrusted, prestidigitation, pomegranate, preposterous, dentiloquist, sepulchre and 323 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2031 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for calipash.

yarb George pooh-poohed the wine and bullied the waiters royally, and Jos gobbled the turtle with immense satisfaction. Dobbin helped him to it; for the lady of the house, before whom the tureen was placed, was so ignorant of the contents, that she was going to help Mr. Sedley without bestowing upon him either calipash or calipee.
- Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. 26 Nov 21, 2008