shell

Plural: shells

Noun

• ammunition consisting of a cylindrical metal casing containing an explosive charge and a projectile; fired from a large gun
• the material that forms the hard outer covering of many animals
• hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles
• the hard usually fibrous outer layer of some fruits especially nuts
• the exterior covering of a bird's egg
• a rigid covering that envelops an object
  • "the satellite is covered with a smooth shell of ice"
• a very light narrow racing boat
• the housing or outer covering of something
• a metal sheathing of uniform thickness (such as the shield attached to an artillery piece to protect the gunners)
• the hard largely calcareous covering of a mollusc or a brachiopod
• A hard external covering of an animal.
• The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates.
• A hard external covering of an animal.
• Any mollusk having such a covering.
• A hard external covering of an animal.
• The exoskeleton or wing covers of certain insects.
• A hard external covering of an animal.
• The conjoined scutes that constitute the "shell" (carapace) of a tortoise or turtle.
• A hard external covering of an animal.
• The overlapping hard plates comprising the armor covering the armadillo's body.
• The hard calcareous covering of a bird egg.
• One of the outer layers of skin of an onion.
• The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
• The covering, or outside part, of a nut.
• The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
• A pod containing the seeds of certain plants, such as the legume Phaseolus vulgaris.
• The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
• Husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is sometimes used as a substitute or adulterant for cocoa and its products such as chocolate.
• The accreted mineral formed around a hollow geode.
• The casing of a self-contained single-unit artillery projectile.
• A hollow, usually spherical or cylindrical projectile fired from a siege mortar or a smoothbore cannon. It contains an explosive substance designed to be ignited by a fuse or by percussion at the target site so that it will burst and scatter at high velocity its contents and fragments. Formerly called a bomb.
• The cartridge of a breechloading firearm; a load; a bullet; a round.
• Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in, as the shell of a house.
• A garment, usually worn by women, such as a shirt, blouse, or top, with short sleeves or no sleeves, that often fastens in the rear.
• A coarse or flimsy coffin; a thin interior coffin enclosed within a more substantial one.
• An unmarked vehicle for carrying corpses from a crime scene.
• A string instrument, as a lyre, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell.
• The body of a drum; the often wooden, often cylindrical acoustic chamber, with or without rims added for tuning and for attaching the drum head.
• An engraved copper roller used in print works.
• The thin coating of copper on an electrotype.
• The watertight outer covering of the hull of a vessel, often made with planking or metal plating.
• The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve.
• A light boat whose frame is covered with thin wood, impermeable fabric, or water-proofed paper; a racing shell or dragon boat.
• A set of atomic orbitals that have the same principal quantum number.
• The outward form independent of what is inside.
• The empty outward form of someone or something.
• An emaciated person.
• A person otherwise diminished.
• A psychological barrier to social interaction.
• An operating system software user interface, whose primary purpose is to launch other programs and control their interactions; the user's command interpreter. Shell is a way to separate the internal complexity of the implementation of the command from the user. The internals can change while the user experience/interface remains the same.
• A legal entity that has no operations.
• A concave rough cast-iron tool in which a convex lens is ground to shape.
• A gouge bit or shell bit.
• The onset and coda of a syllable.
• A person's ear.
• One or more school grades within secondary education, at certain public schools.
• In formal debating, a set of proposed rules to be followed, with set penalties for violating them.

Verb

Verb Forms: shelled, shelling, shells

• To remove the hard outer covering from something.
• use explosives on
  • "The enemy has been shelling us all day"
• create by using explosives
• fall out of the pod or husk
  • "The corn shelled"
• hit the pitches of hard and regularly
  • "He shelled the pitcher for eight runs in the first inning"
• look for and collect shells by the seashore
• come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
• remove from its shell or outer covering
  • "shell the legumes"
  • "shell mussels"
• remove the husks from
• To remove the outer covering or shell of something.
• To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery.
• To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out).
• To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
• To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk.
• To switch to a shell or command line.
• To form shallow, irregular cracks (in a coating).
• To form a shelling.
• To drop (the ball).

Examples

• A shell corporation was formed to acquire the old factory.
• a theory shell
• a topicality shell
• Can I have a quick word in your shell?
• Even after months of therapy he's still in his shell.
• Genuine mother-of-pearl buttons are made from sea shells.
• He had to SHELL his rack of unplayable tiles, hoping for better letters.
• He's lost so much weight from illness; he's a shell of his former self.
• In some mollusks, as the cuttlefish, the shell is concealed by the animal's outer mantle and is considered internal.
• Nuts shell in falling.
• Since coming back from Vietnam; he's been a shell of his former self.
• The black walnut and the hickory nut, both of the same Genus as the pecan, have much thicker and harder shells than the pecan.
• The first lyre may have been made by drawing strings over the underside of a tortoise shell.
• The guns shelled the enemy trenches.
• The name "Bash" is an acronym which stands for "Bourne-again shell", itself a pun on the name of the "Bourne shell", an earlier Unix shell designed by Stephen Bourne, and the Christian concept of being "born again".
• The restaurant served caramelized onion shells.
• The setback left him a mere shell; he was never the same again.
• Wheat or rye shells in reaping.

Synonyms

beat, beat out, blast, carapace, case, casing, crush, cuticle, eggshell, husk, plate, racing shell, scale, shield, trounce, vanquish, shell-like

Anagrams of shell