Definition of "colocynth" [col•ocynth]

• A tendril-bearing Old World vine (Citrullus colocynthis) bearing yellowish, green-mottled fruits the size of small lemons. (noun)
• The fruit of this plant, whose dried, bitter, spongy pulp is a very strong laxative. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The dried pulp of its unripe, full-grown fruit constitutes the drug colocynth, which is used as a cathartic."
• "I applied my usual remedies for it, which consisted of colocynth and quinine; but experience has shown me that an excessive use of the same cathartic weakens its effect, and that it would be well for travellers to take with them different medicines to cause proper action in the liver, such as colocynth, calomel, resin of jalap, Epsom salts; and that no quinine should be taken until such medicines shall have prepared the system for its reception."
• "The hero of the Romance “Al – Dalhamah” is described as a bitter gourd (colocynth), a viper, a calamity."