jack-o'-lantern love

jack-o'-lantern

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A lantern made from a hollowed pumpkin with a carved face, usually displayed on Halloween.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as ignis fatuus, or will-o'-the-wisp.
  • noun A lantern used in children's play, made of the rind of a pumpkin or of a similar vegetable, in which incisions are made to represent eyes, nose, and mouth; a pumpkin-lantern.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Biol.) A large orange-colored luminescent mushroom, Clitocybe illudens, also classified as Omphalotus olearius. It is poisonous and is sometimes found on hardwood tree stumps.
  • noun a pale light sometimes seen at night over marshy ground; an ignis fatuus; a will-o'-the-wisp.
  • noun A lantern carved from a hollowed-out pumpkin, with holes cut in the rind and so shaped that when it is illuminated by a candle inside, the features of a human face, cat's face, etc. appear in a glowing yellow color. It is used mostly as a decoration at Halloween.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A carved pumpkin whose top and stem have been cut out and interior removed, leaving a hollow shell that is then decorated to represent a face, illuminated from within by a candle.
  • noun archaic A will o' the wisp

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a pale light sometimes seen at night over marshy ground
  • noun lantern carved from a pumpkin
  • noun a large poisonous agaric with orange caps and narrow clustered stalks; the gills are luminescent

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From earlier Jack-with-a-lantern, man with a lantern, will-o'-the-wisp.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Originally, a night watchman who carried a lantern. (See Jack)

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  • Guiness Book of World Records shortest time to carve one? 54.72 seconds (2001) --via NPR's Says You

    October 29, 2011