vegetable marrow
1
6.4
- noun
- /ˈvɛdʒtəbl ˈmɛroʊ/
- UK
:
calabacín
- For dinner, she prepared a delicious stew using fresh vegetable marrows and tomatoes.
Examples
-
The farmer harvested dozens of vegetable marrows to sell at the market.
-
I hope to perfect a new strain of the vegetable marrows.
-
In the summer, we often grill vegetable marrow with olive oil and herbs.
Synonyms
68
1.6
A large edible fruit from plants like pumpkin or zucchini used as a vegetable
44
1.6
A long green vegetable like a small squash that people usually cook
2
3.0
A soft vegetable like zucchini eaten while its skin is still tender
1
2.7
A long yellow vegetable with soft skin that you cook and eat
1
4.7
A large green vegetable like a squash with pale flesh
1
6.6
A long thin green vegetable you can eat raw or cooked
A long green vegetable like a large zucchini with pale inside used for cooking
A dark green squash with light patches used in Mediterranean cooking
A yellow vegetable with a thin curved neck and bumpy skin
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward noun–noun composition: 'vegetable' specifies that 'marrow' is the edible plant sense, so the phrase simply denotes a type of squash. The meaning is directly derivable from the constituents and follows a common compositional pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both words will likely understand it.
Etymology
Vegetable marrow may come from cooks who compared the squash's soft, pale inside to marrow, the soft part inside bones. So people began to call a big, mild squash a vegetable marrow, which is why the name now means 'a large, elongated summer squash eaten as a vegetable'.