pumpkin

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A coarse trailing vine (Cucurbita pepo) widely cultivated for its fruit.
2. n. The large pulpy round fruit of this plant, having a thick, orange-yellow rind and numerous seeds.
3. n. Any of several other vines of the genus Cucurbita, especially C. maxima or C. moschata, bearing large pumpkinlike squashes.
4. n. A moderate to strong orange.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The fruit of a variety of Cucurbita Pepo; also, the plant which produces it. The plant is a coarse decumbent vine, often many feet long; the leaves are heart-shaped and somewhat lobed, nearly a foot across, and rough and almost prickly, as are also their hollow stalks. The gourd-like fruit is nearly globular or somewhat oblong, flattened at the ends, a foot or more in length, and of a deep orange-yellow color when ripe. Inside it is partly filled with a dryish stringy pulp containing the seeds; the esculent part is a fleshy layer an inch or two thick beneath the rind. The pumpkin is of supposed Asiatic origin, and is cultivated in many countries; in England it has been cultivated either as a curiosity or for food since 1570. It is thought to have been known to the American aborigines, and to have been planted by them among their maize. In America it has been largely given as food to cattle, and is also used on the table, especially in pumpkin-pie; but in culinary use it is now largely superseded by the squash, and is less grown for other purposes than formerly. The pumpkin has various subvarieties, and is closely related to the vegetable marrow. (See marrow.) The name is sometimes wrongly applied to forms of the squash. In England occasionally called gourd or pumpkin-gourd. See Cucurbita.

Wiktionary

1. n. A domesticated plant, Cucurbita pepo, similar in growth pattern, foliage, flower, and fruit to the squash or melon.
2. n. The round yellow or orange fruit of this plant.
3. n. The color of the fruit of the pumpkin plant.
4. n. Australia Any of a number of cultivars from the genus Cucurbita; known in the US as winter squash.
5. n. US A term of endearment for someone small and cute.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A well-known trailing plant (Cucurbita pepo) and its fruit, -- used for cooking and for feeding stock; a pompion.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. usually large pulpy deep-yellow round fruit of the squash family maturing in late summer or early autumn
2. n. a coarse vine widely cultivated for its large pulpy round orange fruit with firm orange skin and numerous seeds; subspecies of Cucurbita pepo include the summer squashes and a few autumn squashes