pumping shaft (pumping shaft)

See shaft. pumpion (pumpion), n. [Also pompion, pompeon, poumpion, pompon; ME. pep on), Herbes of the bygger sorte, as gourdes, melones, cucumers, pompons , citrons, and suche other, coo me to their perfection in the space of thirtie dayes. Peter Martyr (tr. in Eden's First Books on America, [ed. Arber, p. 168). All manner of strange fruits, as pomegranates, oranges, Stow (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 477). IMG:content-1301.jpg:[graphic] pompions. We'll use this unwholesome humidity, this gro watery pumpion ; we'll teach him to know turtles from jays. Shak., M. W. of W., iii. 3. 43. Indian pompeons , the water melon, and the musk-mell on. S. Clarke , Four Plantations in America (1670), p. 26. Observe a pompion -twine afloat; Pluck me one cup from off the castle-moat! Along with cup you raise leaf, stalk, and root, The entire surface of the pool to boot. pump-tube to prevent the entrance of foreign matters; a strainer. E. H. Knight. pumpkin (pumpkin), n. [Formerly also pum kin (and in popular use, though spelled pump kin, now generally pronounced pungkin, as if written punkin ); an altered form, simulating the term. -kin, of pumpion.] The fruit of a variety of Cucurbit a Pepo; also, the plant which produces it. The plant is a coarse decumbent vine, often many feet long; the leaves are heart-shaped and somewhat lobed, nearly a foot acro , and rough and almost prickly, as are also their hollow stalks. The gourd like fruit is nearly globular or somewhat oblong, flattened at the ends, a foot or more in length, and of a deep orange yellow color when ripe. Inside it is partly filled with a dryish stringy pulp containing the seeds; the esculent part is a fleshy layer an inch or two thick beneath the rind. The pumpkin is of supposed Asiatic origin, and is cultivated in many countries; in England it has been cultivated either as a curiosity or for food since 1570. It is thought to have been known to the American aborigines, and to have been planted by them among their maize. In America it has been largely given as food to cattle, and is also used on the table, especially in pumpkin-pie; but in culinary use it is now largely superseded by the squash, and is le grown for other purposes than formerly. The pumpkin has various subvarieties, and is closely related to the vegetable marrow. (See marrow1.) The name is sometimes wrongly applied to forms of the squash. In England occasionally called gourd or pumpkin - gourd. See Cucurbit a . We had an entertainment of boiled wheat with meat in it, and a dish of the pumkin kind, dre ed after their way. Pococke , Description of the East, II. i. 181. pumpkin-head (pump'kin-hed), n. A stupid fellow; a dolt. [Colloq., U. S.]