shell
A hard external covering of an animal.
Noun 4 meanings
A hard external covering of an animal.
“In some mollusks, as the cuttlefish, the shell is concealed by the animal's outer mantle and is considered internal.”
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 black walnut and the hickory nut, both of the same Genus as the pecan, have much thicker and harder shells than the pecan.”
Verb 4 meanings
To remove the outer covering or shell of something.
To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery.
“The guns shelled the enemy trenches.”
To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out).
To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
Etymology
From Middle English schelle, from Old English sċel, sċell, sċiell, sċil, sċill, sċyl, sċyll, from Proto-West Germanic *skallju, from Proto-Germanic *skaljō (“shell; husk; rind; peel”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to cut; to separate, split”).
SHELL at a glance
SHELL has 5 letters and scores 8 points in Scrabble (S 1 + H 4 + E 1 + L 1 + L 1) and 9 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #3,655 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
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