Zool. [ad. L. cucurbitīnus pertaining to or like a gourd, f. cucurbita. In F. cucurbitin, -ain.] A name for each separated segment or proglottis of a tapeworm, from its resemblance to the seed of a gourd.
[1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. xlix. (1495), 262. Wormes that ben nourisshed … in the nether grete bowelles hyghte Ascarides and Cucurbitini, for they ben lyke to the seedes of gourdes.]
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. VII. xiii. 400. The successive transformations which the Tænia communis undergoes…. The fourth stage is that of the Cucurbitins, or separated segments.
