• (RP) IPA: /ˈkæləbæʃ/
• (GA) IPA: /ˈkæləˌbæʃ/

calabash (plural calabashes)

1. A tree (known as the calabash tree; Crescentia cujete) native#Adjective|native to Central and South America, the West Indies, and southern Florida, bear#Verb|bearing large, round#Adjective|round fruit#Noun|fruit used to make containers (sense 3); the fruit of this tree.
2. The bottle gourd (calabash vine, Lagenaria siceraria), believed to have originated in Africa, which is grown for its fruit that are used as a vegetable and to make containers (sense 3); the fruit of this plant.

   Synonyms: dudhi, lauki

3. A container made from the mature#Adjective|mature, dried#Adjective|dried shell#Noun|shell of the fruit of one of the above plants; also, a similarly shaped#Adjective|shaped container made from some other material#Noun|material.
   • 1851 November 13, Herman Melville, “Wheelbarrow” and “The Prophet”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299 ↗, pages 65 and 105 ↗:

     [page 65 ↗] The people of his island of Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl; and this punchbowl always forms the great central ornament on the braided mat where the feast is held. [...] [page 105 ↗] [I]t seemed to me that he was dogging us, but with what intent I could not for the life of me imagine. This circumstance, coupled with his ambiguous, half-hinting, half-revealing, shrouded sort of talk, now begat in me all kinds of vague wonderments and half-apprehensions, and all connected with the Pequod; and Captain Ahab; and the leg he had lost; and the Cape Horn fit; and the silver calabash; [...]

4. A calabash and its contents; as much as fill#Verb|fills such a container.
5. (musical instrument) A musical instrument, most commonly a drum#Noun|drum or rattle#Noun|rattle, made from a calabash fruit.

• French: calebasse
• German: Flaschenkürbis
• Portuguese: cabaça, cabaceiro, cuieira, porongo
• Russian: горля́нка
• Spanish: calabaza, jícara (Central America), zapallo (South America)

• German: Flaschenkürbis
• Portuguese: cabaça, cuia, porongo
• Russian: горля́нка

• French: calebasse
• Italian: calabassa
• Portuguese: cuia
• Russian: калаба́ш
• Spanish: guacal (Central America), jícara (Central America), tecomate (Central America)