husk

Meaning

Noun

1. The dry, leafy or stringy exterior of certain vegetables or fruits, which must be removed before eating the meat inside.
2. (figuratively) Any form of useless, dried up, and subsequently worthless exterior of something.
3. The supporting frame of a run of millstones.

Verb

To remove husks from.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To cough, clear one's throat.
2. (transitive) To say huskily, to utter in a husky voice.

Synonyms

shell

🐚

peel

hull

skin

chaff

bark

shuck

pod

rind

crust

bran

straw

casing

stalk

fodder

stubble

slough

cornhusk

pare

cover

testa

crush

investment

fish

🐟

coconut husk

scale

grind

skim

membrane

paring

peeling

peel off

pericarp

pot

pound

💷

rubbish

scour

shave

sheath

strip

strip off

test

valve

pallium

rice bran

skim off

untanned pelt

decorticatie

episperm

vegetables

Translations

cáscara

Hülse

schil

schors

Schale

dop

🐚

schaal

🐚

décortiquer

buccia

balle

casca

écorce

pula

gousse

Rinde

Pronounced as (IPA)

/hʌsk/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: huske

Inherited from Old English:

Cognate with Dutch: huisje

Cognate with German: Häuschen

In summary

From Middle English huske, husk (“husk”). Perhaps from Old English *husuc, *hosuc (“little covering, sheath”), diminutive of hosu (“pod, shell, husk”), from Proto-West Germanic *hosā, from Proto-Germanic *husǭ (“covering, shell, leggings”), from Proto-Indo-European *kawəs- / kawes- (“cover”). If so, equivalent to hose + -ock.
Alternatively from Middle Low German hûs(e)ken, hü̂seken (“little house, sheath”), Middle Dutch husekijn (“little house, core of fruit, case”), diminutive of hûs (“house”). Compare Dutch huisje, German Häuschen, both also used for “snailshell”.