[So called from the abundance of watery juice. Cf. F. melon d’eau.] A kind of gourd, Citrullus vulgaris (formerly Cucumis Citrullus). (Applied both to the plant and its fruit.)
1615. R. Cocks, Diary (Hakl. Soc.), I. 47. A present of 10 water millons. Ibid. 10 water millans.
1666. J. Davies, Hist. Caribby Isles, 66. There grows in these Countries another kind of Melons … call’d Water-Melons, because they are full of a sugar’d water, intermingled with their meat.
1762. Mills, Syst. Pract. Husb., I. 153. I design to try liquorice-roots, barley, Cape-Breton wheat, cotton, indigo-seed, wood for dying, and the water melon.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 270. Two Water-melons used for buoying lines.
1887. Moloney, Forestry W. Afr., 360. Water Melon…. Commonly cultivated in all warm countries of the world for its fleshy edible fruit.
attrib. 1832. S. A. Ferrall, Ramble Amer., 298. Here I—slipped out at the side door into the water-melon patch.
