Literary notes about cucumber (AI summary)
Several authors have drawn on the fresh, understated green of the cucumber to evoke both literal color and a state of calm in their works. In some descriptions, the vegetable’s thin, smooth, green rind ([1]) becomes a touchstone for a natural, cooling hue—a subtle reminder of nature’s restorative palette. This imagery is deepened by the recurring idiom “cool as a cucumber” ([2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11]), where the cucumber’s inherent freshness is invoked to suggest an unruffled, composed temperament. In these instances, the color of the cucumber transcends its role as a mere ingredient, symbolizing a soothing, natural grace that permeates both appearance and character.
- The fruit is oblong, obtuse-angled, somewhat resembling a short, thick cucumber, with a thin, smooth, green rind, filled with a pleasant, acid juice.
— from Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture by William Saunders - And then she went on, as cool as a cucumber, 'As long as you've got an extra stall, may I send for one of my horses?
— from The Old Gray Homestead by Frances Parkinson Keyes - He was just as cool as a cucumber, though he had been knocked silly by that explosion a quarter of an hour before.
— from A Roving Commission; Or, Through the Black Insurrection at Hayti by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty - "Oh, only getting our hair cut in the Zouave pattern," said Peter, as cool as a cucumber.
— from Red, White, Blue Socks, Part FirstBeing the First Book by Sarah L. Barrow - Look at me—cool as a cucumber.
— from The Stowaway Girl by Louis Tracy - He sits his noble animal with confidence, ease, and grace, and as cool as a cucumber.
— from Sporting Society; or, Sporting Chat and Sporting Memories, Vol. 2 (of 2) - Tom there in full sight, sitting in his desk chair, cool as a cucumber, letting her scream."
— from The Million-Dollar Suitcase by Perry Newberry - '"Thank ye, Brother Inner Guard," sez Crook, cool as a cucumber widout salt.
— from Soldier Stories by Rudyard Kipling - You ought to be an officer, for you could make a good one,—a better one than I am, for you are as cool as a cucumber."
— from An Original Belle by Edward Payson Roe - Each man was an expert with his weapon, and cool as the proverbial cucumber, though considerably excited.
— from The Buffalo Runners: A Tale of the Red River Plains by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne - Yet on that morning of Revolution he appeared as cool as a cucumber.
— from My Days of Adventure The Fall of France, 1870-71 by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
