Mel·on n.
 1. Bot. The juicy fruit of certain cucurbitaceous plants, as the muskmelon, watermelon, and citron melon; also, the plant that produces the fruit.
 2. Zool. A large, ornamental, marine, univalve shell of the genus Melo.
 Melon beetle Zool., a small leaf beetle (Diabrotiea vittata), which damages the leaves of melon vines.
 Melon cactus, Melon thistle. (a) Bot. A genus of cactaceous plants (Melocactus) having a fleshy and usually globose stem with the surface divided into spiny longitudinal ridges, and bearing at the top a prickly and woolly crown in which the small pink flowers are half concealed.  Melocactus communis, from the West Indies, is often cultivated, and sometimes called Turk's cap. (b) The related genus Mamillaria, in which the stem is tubercled rather than ribbed, and the flowers sometimes large. See Illust. under Cactus.

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 Turk n.
 1. A member of any of numerous Tartar tribes of Central Asia, etc.; esp., one of the dominant race in Turkey.
 2. A native or inhabitant of Turkey.
 3. A Muslim; esp., one living in Turkey. [Archaic]
    It is no good reason for a man's religion that he was born and brought up in it; for then a Turk would have as much reason to be a Turk as a Christian to be a Christian.   --Chillingworth.
 4. Zool. The plum weevil. See Curculio, and Plum weevil, under Plum.
 Turk's cap. Bot. (a) Turk's-cap lily. See under Lily. (b) A tulip. (c) A plant of the genus Melocactus; Turk's head. See Melon cactus, under Melon.
 Turk's head. (a) Naut. A knot of turbanlike form worked on a rope with a piece of small line. --R. H. Dana, Jr. (b) Bot. See Turk's cap (c) above.
 Turk's turban Bot., a plant of the genus Ranunculus; crowfoot.

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