Pumpkin

10 definitions retrieved

Pumpkin \Pump"kin\, n. [For older pompion, pompon, OF. pompon,
L. pepo, peponis, Gr. ?, properly, cooked by the sun, ripe,
mellow; -- so called because not eaten till ripe. Cf. Cook,
n.] (Bot.)
A well-known trailing plant (Cucurbita pepo) and its fruit,
-- used for cooking and for feeding stock; a pompion.
[1913 Webster]

Pumpkin seed.
(a) The flattish oval seed of the pumpkin.
(b) (Zool.) The common pondfish.
[1913 Webster]

pumpkin
n 1: a coarse vine widely cultivated for its large pulpy round
orange fruit with firm orange skin and numerous seeds;
subspecies of Cucurbita pepo include the summer squashes
and a few autumn squashes [syn: pumpkin, pumpkin vine,
autumn pumpkin, Cucurbita pepo]

2: usually large pulpy deep-yellow round fruit of the squash
family maturing in late summer or early autumn

pumpkin

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)