gourd vine

6.8

A climbing plant that makes fruits with hard skins like bottle gourds

noun
/ɡʊrd vaɪn/

: planta de calabaza

Many gardeners love to grow gourd vines in their backyards.

Examples

Farmers rely on the gourd vine for its durable fruits and attractive foliage.
During summer, the gourd vine produced an abundance of large, round fruits perfect for decoration.
A single gourd vine can produce dozens of bottle gourds in one season.
The gourd vine in our backyard covers the entire fence by midsummer.
The gourd vine climbed up the trellis quickly.
The gardener carefully trained the gourd vine to climb the trellis for better sunlight exposure.
She admired the beautiful flowers blooming on her gourd vine as it twisted around the fence.

Synonyms

gourd

vsgourd vine

8 4.2

A climbing plant that makes fruits with hard skins, some used for food or decoration

is specifically about the climbing or trailing plant form rather than the general name

cucurbit

vsgourd vine

Specialized

1 8.6

A group of garden plants that include cucumbers, melons, squashes, and pumpkins

is narrower, referring only to the climbing or trailing members that bear hard rinds

bottle gourd

vsgourd vine

6.1

A climbing plant with hard, bottle-shaped fruit used as food or dried to make containers

is broader, covering any related climber not only bottle shaped fruit types

melon vine

vsgourd vine

3.9

A climbing plant that grows melons like watermelons or cantaloupes

focuses more on hard durable rinds rather than fruits specifically called melons

buffalo gourd

vsgourd vine

9.9

A vine that grows in dry areas and has small hard green fruits not eaten

is the general category of climbing plants that produce hard durable rinds

prairie gourd

vsgourd vine

9.9

A long-lived vine from dry central and southwestern US and Mexico that has small hard green-and-white fruits not for eating

refers more generally to climbing plants with hard rinds, not this specific species

prairie gourd vine

vsgourd vine

9.9

A vine that grows in dry fields and makes small hard green fruits that are not edible

is the broader label for climbing plants with hard rinds beyond this local species

Missouri gourd

vsgourd vine

9.9

A vine from central and southwestern United States and Mexico that makes small hard spotted green fruit you cannot eat

applies to climbing plants with hard rinds generally, not only this regional species

sponge gourd

vsgourd vine

9.1

A climbing plant whose young fruits are edible and whose dried mature fruit makes a natural sponge

is broader, emphasizing plants that produce hard rinds rather than sponge use

rag gourd

vsgourd vine

Indian

9.3

A tropical climbing plant with big yellow flowers, edible young fruits, and a dry inside used as a sponge

focuses on the general trait of hard durable rinds rather than cultivation use

dishcloth gourd

vsgourd vine

9.7

A climbing plant with large yellow flowers and edible young fruits that dry into natural sponges

highlights the plant type generically, not the specific use as cleaned fibrous sponges

How Climbing

gourd vine

6.8

vine

116 1.0

groundcover

Specialized

1 4.7

Surface Forms

gourd vine singular

gourd vines plural

Morphology

gourd + vine

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'gourd' (a plant in the cucurbit family) modifying 'vine' (a twining plant): a vine that is a gourd plant. This noun–noun compound follows a common and cross-linguistic modifier+head pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both words should understand the MWE.

Etymology

Gourd vine names a climbing plant that grows long stems called a vine and makes hard-shelled gourd fruits. People have long used the dry fruits as 'containers' and 'tools', so the name means the plant that produces those useful, hard fruits.