pumpkin

[puhmp-kin or, commonly, puhng-kin] /ˈpʌmp kɪn or, commonly, ˈpʌŋ kɪn/
noun
1.
a large, edible, orange-yellow fruit borne by a coarse, decumbent vine, Cucurbita pepo, of the gourd family.
2.
the similar fruit of any of several related species, as C. maxima or C. moschata.
3.
a plant bearing such fruit.
Origin
1640-50; alteration of pumpion (see -kin), variant of pompon < Middle French, nasalized variant of popon melon, earlier pepon < Latin pepōn- (stem of pepō) < Greek pépōn kind of melon
Examples from the web for pumpkin
  • Using a vegetable peeler or paring knife, peel pumpkin or squash.
  • It also means that there is a lot of pumpkin around for cooking.
  • Autumnal trips to pumpkin patches have been cancelled.
  • Grab your carving tools and visit one of these fall pumpkin festivals, a fun way to celebrate the season.
  • pumpkin finally redeemed itself and bagged a one-way entry ticket to my humble kitchen.
  • Fill in the blanks in the first several paragraphs of this article about pumpkin smashing.
  • They went ahead and did what the wise one prompted further and they all came to have a good pumpkin dish.
  • While paint is still wet, run a rubber comb around the pumpkin.
  • The middle layer is a pumpkin pie baked inside a yellow cake.
  • Holding a tofu burger or growing a pumpkin simply doesn't draw the same envy.
British Dictionary definitions for pumpkin

pumpkin

/ˈpʌmpkɪn/
noun
1.
any of several creeping cucurbitaceous plants of the genus Cucurbita, esp C. pepo of North America and C. maxima of Europe
2.
  1. the large round fruit of any of these plants, which has a thick orange rind, pulpy flesh, and numerous seeds
  2. (as modifier): pumpkin pie
3.
(often capital) (mainly US) a term of endearment
Word Origin
C17: from earlier pumpion, from Old French pompon, from Latin pepo, from Greek pepōn, from pepōn ripe, from peptein to ripen
Word Origin and History for pumpkin
n.

1640s, alteration of pompone, pumpion "melon, pumpkin" (1540s), from Middle French pompon, from Latin peponem (nominative pepo) "melon," from Greek pepon "melon," probably originally "cooked (by the sun)," hence "ripe;" from peptein "to cook" (see cook (n.)). Pumpkin-pie is recorded from 1650s. Pumpkin-head, American English colloquial for "person with hair cut short all around" is recorded from 1781. Vulgar American English alternative spelling punkin attested by 1806.

America's a dandy place:
The people are all brothers:
And when one's got a punkin pye,
He shares it with the others.

[from "A Song for the Fourth of July, 1806," in "The Port Folio," Philadelphia, Aug. 30, 1806]

Slang definitions & phrases for pumpkin

pumpkin

noun
  1. The head (1890s+)
  2. One's sweetheart, beloved, spouse, etc; doll, honey, sweetie: We're allies in everything, pumpkin (1940s+)

pumpkin in Technology

jargon
A humourous term for the token - the object (notional or real) that gives its possessor (the "pumpking" or the "pumpkineer") exclusive access to something, e.g. applying patches to a master copy of source (for which the pumpkin is called a "patch pumpkin").
Chip Salzenberg wrote:
David Croy once told me once that at a previous job, there was one tape drive and multiple systems that used it for backups. But instead of some high-tech exclusion software, they used a low-tech method to prevent multiple simultaneous backups: a stuffed pumpkin. No one was allowed to make backups unless they had the "backup pumpkin".
(1999-02-23)