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summer squash

summer squash

2 3.0
A soft vegetable like zucchini eaten while its skin is still tender
  • noun
  • /ˈsʌmər skwɑʃ/
translation icon : calabacín
  • Lutein, along with several other carotenes, gives summer squash, apricots, peaches, and oranges their yellow to light-orange color.

Now, winter squash differ from summer squash in that they have a much harder skin on the outside.

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Examples

  • Last summer, she had an overabundance of summer squash and came up with the great idea of extending their shelf life by pickling them.

    Blog text (18)
  • Here is something to try with all the summer squash still left in your garden.

    Blog text (18)
  • I think I'll plant some summer squash next year.

  • Start by cutting your summer squash.

    Blog text (18)
  • The girls tended a garden of tomatoes, summer squash, and peas.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Using a mandolin, carefully slice zucchini or summer squash.

    Blog text (18)
  • There was cilantro-marinated shrimp, roasted mussels, fresh ham, Vidalia onions, and summer squash.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • I put in a garden at the end of the month, turning up grass with a hoe in back of the house by the shed, setting in snap beans and summer squash—good food, food to grow babies by.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • I would like to start planting some basil and summer squash, and maybe some other herbs, but I don't do too well with those either. I think I need to buy some planting beds to keep the critters out.

    Blog text (12)
  • I like to combine yellow and green summer squash for color contrast.

Synonyms

zucchini
vssummer squash
  • US
44 1.6

A long green vegetable like a small squash that people usually cook

is the broader category covering many such immature edible varieties
yellow squash
vssummer squash
  • US
1 2.7

A long yellow vegetable with soft skin that you cook and eat

is the general term for many immature squash types including this one
vegetable marrow
vssummer squash
  • UK
1 6.4

A long green summer squash with pale inside that people eat

is the overall group of bushy plants producing immature edible fruit
crookneck
vssummer squash
  • US
1 6.1

A yellow squash with a thin curved neck and slightly bumpy skin grown as a vegetable

is the wider category that this specific vegetable variety belongs to
cocozelle
vssummer squash
  • US
9.9

A summer squash like a zucchini with dark and light green stripes

is the general category including these immature edible varieties
Cucurbita pepo melopepo
vssummer squash
  • Specialized
9.1

A bushy plant like zucchini or pattypan that produces edible squash picked when young

is the common food category rather than the botanical group
summer squash vine
vssummer squash
5.6

A bushy plant that grows soft edible squash eaten young

is the category name for such plants and their edible immature fruits
crookneck squash
vssummer squash
  • US
5.4

A yellow vegetable with a thin curved neck and bumpy skin

is the broad class that includes such immature yellow varieties
summer crookneck
vssummer squash
  • US
6.9

A yellow squash with a thin curved neck and slightly bumpy skin used in cooking

is the general category covering this cooking variety

How Big

pumpkin
338 1.0
marrow
  • UK
1 4.7
squash
68 1.6
summer squash
2 3.0
zucchini
  • US
44 1.6

Surface Forms

summer squash singular

Morphology

summer + squash

The meaning ('a type of squash associated with summer, eaten while still soft/immature') is directly derivable from combining 'summer' (the season) with 'squash' (the edible gourd). This follows a regular noun–noun compounding pattern common in English (and in many other languages), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the sense.

Etymology

The noun summer squash comes from how people harvest and eat this vegetable: farmers pick the soft, young squash during the warm summer months. Because these fruits are 'picked while young' and usually 'eaten fresh' instead of stored for winter, the name now means a type of squash eaten while still soft.