DCHP-1 Online
gumbo † [< Am.E "okra" < a Bantu word] 
1 n. West and Northwest See 1902 quote.
- 1902 (1957) As we neared Regina the soil took on the character of what in western parlance is called "gumbo." This gumbo is a very fine-grained soil, rich in alkaline compounds, which, when saturated with water, becomes as sticky as glue and impervious to moisture, whilst it cracks and bakes as hard as bricks when thoroughly dry.
- 1923 When it rains, the first half of the road, from Fitzgerald, is turned to a liquid mud or "gumbo," profound and tenacious.
- 1964 There is a bank, though a bandit with a flair for the spectacular could make the getaway of the century by putting wheels back under it and pulling out in a cloud of dust, or gumbo.
2 n. any thick, sticky mud.
- 1909 The team stuck fast in the black muck, and every effort to extricate them served only to imbed them more hopelessly in the sticky gumbo.
- 1966 . . . this little press had once been taken apart and packed on the backs of men through 40 miles of gumbo and jack pine.
- 1902 (1957) As we neared Regina the soil took on the character of what in western parlance is called "gumbo." This gumbo is a very fine-grained soil, rich in alkaline compounds, which, when saturated with water, becomes as sticky as glue and impervious to moisture, whilst it cracks and bakes as hard as bricks when thoroughly dry.