Definition of "gumbo" []

• Chiefly Southern U.S. See okra. See Regional Note at goober. (noun)
• A soup or stew thickened with okra pods. Also called okra. (noun)
• Chiefly Mississippi Valley & Western U.S. A fine silty soil, common in the southern and western United States, that forms an unusually sticky mud when wet. (noun)
• A French patois spoken by some Black people and Creoles in Louisiana and the French West Indies. (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.

• "Whether the black slaves brought to America the okra or found it already existing on the continent is uncertain, but the term gumbo is undoubtedly of African origin, as also is the term mbenda (peanuts or ground-nuts), corrupted into pindar in some of the Southern States."
• "Women unable to feed the bellies of hungry children, were forced to rummage through garbage, and by the grace of God, and anointed creativity, found leftovers okra, rice, tomato, a scrap of pork and a fragment of shrimp to create a meal we call gumbo."
• "I've only used okra in gumbo so now I can be a groundbreaker with my local Toronto foodie pals."