n. [ Written also gourd. ] [ Perh. hollow, and so named in allusion to a gourd. ] An instrument of gaming; a sort of dice. [ Obs. ] Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. See Gordian, 1. ] (Zool.) A division of nematoid worms, including the hairworms or hair eels (Gordius and Mermis). See Gordius, and Illustration in Appendix. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Pertaining to Gordius, king of Phrygia, or to a knot tied by him; hence, intricate; complicated; inextricable. [ 1913 Webster ]

Gordian knot, an intricate knot tied by Gordius in the thong which connected the pole of the chariot with the yoke. An oracle having declared that he who should untie it should be master of Asia, Alexander the Great averted the ill omen of his inability to loosen it by cutting it with his sword. Hence, a Gordian knot is an inextricable difficulty; and to cut the Gordian knot is to remove a difficulty by bold and energetic measures. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) Pertaining to the Gordiacea. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) One of the Gordiacea. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL. See Gordian, 1. ] (Zool.) A genus of long, slender, nematoid worms, parasitic in insects until near maturity, when they leave the insect, and live in water, in which they deposit their eggs; -- called also hair eel, hairworm, and hair snake, from the absurd, but common and widely diffused, notion that they are metamorphosed horsehairs. [ 1913 Webster ]