gumbo

plural gumbos · alternative gombo

1. countableSynonym of okra: the plant or its edible capsules.

   Synonyms: okra

2. countableA soup or stew popular in Louisiana, consisting of a strong stock, meat or shellfish, a thickener (often okra), and the "Holy Trinity" of celery, bell peppers, and onions.
3. uncountableA fine silty soil that when wet becomes very thick and heavy.

   The red gumbo soil uttered ugly sucking sounds at the touch of a man's boot.

   1950 July 3, “Labor: Trouble at Lowland”, in Time

   2 more examples

   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.

   1909, Ralph Connor, chapter 11, in The Foreigner

   There are no poorer roads in all the United States than the "gumbo" roads of the south—gumbo being the name give a certain kind of mud or clay that is particularly sticky, clings tenaciously, seems to have no bottom, and will not support any weight.

   1914 April, “Making Good Roads by Firing Poor Ones”, in Popular Mechanics, page 567