Sekirov Dictionary

shell

/ʃɛl/

noun 41
verb 9
forms 3
phrases 3

noun41

a hard case on the outside of some animals, which keeps their soft bodies safe
•
The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates.
- In some mollusks, as the cuttlefish, the shell is concealed by the animal's outer mantle and is considered internal.
- Genuine mother-of-pearl buttons are made from sea shells.
The exoskeleton or wing covers of certain insects.
The conjoined scutes that constitute the "shell" (carapace) of a tortoise or turtle.
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 restaurant served caramelized onion shells.
The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
•
The covering, or outside part, of a nut.
- The black walnut and the hickory nut, both of the same Genus as the pecan, have much thicker and harder shells than the pecan.
A pod containing the seeds of certain plants, such as the legume Phaseolus vulgaris.
The accreted mineral formed around a hollow geode.
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.
•
An emaciated person.
- He's lost so much weight from illness; he's a shell of his former self.
•
(figurative) The empty outward form of someone or something.
- The setback left him a mere shell; he was never the same again.
•
(figurative) A person otherwise diminished.
- Since coming back from Vietnam, he's been a shell of his former self.
•
A psychological barrier to social interaction.
- Even after months of therapy he's still in his shell.
•
A legal entity that has no operations.
- A shell corporation was formed to acquire the old factory.
Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in, as the shell of a house.
(figurative) The outward form independent of what is inside.
•
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.
- 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".
Any mollusk having such a covering.
The casing of a self-contained single-unit artillery projectile.
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.
A light boat whose frame is covered with thin wood, impermeable fabric, or water-proofed paper; a racing shell or dragon boat.
The watertight outer covering of the hull of a vessel, often made with planking or metal plating.
A set of atomic orbitals that have the same principal quantum number.
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.
- Upstairs in that chill darkened room which nobody passes who can help it , the old Baronet lies in his coffin shell - an awful form faintly defined beneath the sheet — 1877
•
A string instrument, as a lyre, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell.
- The first lyre may have been made by drawing strings over the underside of a tortoise shell.
•
An unmarked vehicle for carrying corpses from a crime scene.
- Then they lifted the body into the bag, setting it down like something breakable, zipped the bag, wrapped the whole thing in polythene and carried the stretcher into the shell. — 2022
•
(UK) One or more school grades within secondary education, at certain public schools.
- Chinese (Mandarin) is taught at Westminster from the Lower Shell as an optional subject. — 2013
•
(UK, slang) A person's ear.
- Can I have a quick word in your shell?
[in the plural] Husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is sometimes used as a substitute or adulterant for cocoa and its products such as chocolate.
A gouge bit or shell bit.
The onset and coda of a syllable.
In formal debating, a set of proposed rules to be followed, with set penalties for violating them.
The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve.
A concave rough cast-iron tool in which a convex lens is ground to shape.
An engraved copper roller used in print works.
The thin coating of copper on an electrotype.

verb9

To remove the outer covering or shell of something.
To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
•
To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk.
- Nuts shell in falling.
- Wheat or rye shells in reaping.
•
To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery.
- The guns shelled the enemy trenches.
(informal) To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out).
•
To switch to a shell or command line.
- Automenu is a good program to try, and offers a fair amount of protection - but, unfortunately, it's one of those systems that allow users to shell to DOS. — 1993
•
(slang) To drop (the ball).
- He shelled it, and dislocated his finger in the process. — 2022
To form shallow, irregular cracks (in a coating).
To form a shelling.

forms

shelled · shelling · shells

Phrases with shell

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