shell

Meaning

Noun

1. A hard external covering of an animal.
2. A hard external covering of an animal.
3. A hard external covering of an animal.
4. A hard external covering of an animal.
5. A hard external covering of an animal.
6. The hard calcareous covering of a bird egg.
7. One of the outer layers of skin of an onion.
8. The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
9. The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
10. The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
11. The accreted mineral formed around a hollow geode.
12. The casing of a self-contained single-unit artillery projectile.
13. 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.
14. The cartridge of a breechloading firearm; a load; a bullet; a round.
15. Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in, as the shell of a house.
16. 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.
17. A coarse or flimsy coffin; a thin interior coffin enclosed within a more substantial one.
18. An unmarked vehicle for carrying corpses from a crime scene.
19. A string instrument, as a lyre, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell.
20. 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.
21. An engraved copper roller used in print works.
22. The thin coating of copper on an electrotype.
23. The watertight outer covering of the hull of a vessel, often made with planking or metal plating.
24. The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve.
25. A light boat whose frame is covered with thin wood, impermeable fabric, or water-proofed paper; a racing shell or dragon boat.
26. A set of atomic orbitals that have the same principal quantum number.
27. The outward form independent of what is inside.
28. The empty outward form of someone or something.
29. An emaciated person.
30. A person otherwise diminished.
31. A psychological barrier to social interaction.
32. 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.
33. A legal entity that has no operations.
34. A concave rough cast-iron tool in which a convex lens is ground to shape.
35. A gouge bit or shell bit.
36. The onset and coda of a syllable.
37. (slang) A person's ear.
38. One or more school grades within secondary education, at certain public schools.
39. In formal debating, a set of proposed rules to be followed, with set penalties for violating them.

Verb

1. To remove the outer covering or shell of something.
2. To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery.
3. (informal) To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out).
4. To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
5. To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk.
6. To switch to a shell or command line.
7. To form shallow, irregular cracks (in a coating).
8. To form a shelling.

Concepts

shell

peel

hull

skin

husk

carapace

bark

casing

pod

bombard

crust

bullet

eggshell

seashell

cover

rind

shot

bomb

cartridge

case

scale

strip

conch

shuck

frame

covering

shellfish

pare

shield

projectile

clear

envelope

beat

beat out

trounce

vanquish

blast

nutshell

framework

armor

fur

leather

clam

grenade

testa

crush

cuticle

racing shell

blanket

mussel

coat

pellet

strafe

detect

abstract

bare

deprive

discover

expose

nick

purloin

starve

steal

uncover

slough

chaff

hide

pelt

cannon ball

shelter

come off

bombshell

fire

integument

missile

exterior

charge

plate

crump

sheath

flake

cortex

test

chassis

cylinder

inclosure

fruit skin

round

incrustation

jacket

mantle

paring

skim

decorticate

peel off

airframe

overcome

outer covering

fire at

oyster

bombardment

deprive of

armoring

armour

rent

shots

bivalve

mollusc

crack

flake off

discharge

shoot

hush

pericarp

residuum

hollow core

conch-shell

nacre

weave

house

cockle-shell

scallop-shell

mussel-shell

oyster-shell

concha

epaulette

extrude

expel

encase

souvenir

whizz-bang

crust tyre

pot

clothing

husk corn

chip off

ostracum

capsid

hard surface

virocapsid

lamella

encloser

enclosure

housing

cabinet

housing case

jug

steam cylinder

spilliness

bowl

main body

cage

cap

hood

jar

lid

mantel

pants

protecting case

thin shell

strip off

snail shell

peanut

empty shotgun shell

bran

unit of ammunition

scallop

scollop

racing gig

racing skiff

bema

choir

cornhusk

encrustation

episperm

investment

pallium

valve

exfoliate

leach

shave

skim off

hatch

barrage

pepper

zap

bare bones

bod

body

corpus

fuselage

log

scull

skeletal frame

skeleton

trunk

undercarriage

stem

diaper

napkin

nappy

swathing

best

carry

conquer

have the best

letter

lick

outdo

outgo

outmatch

outplay

pip

prevail

quell

sack

scoop

take

transcend

triumph

win

remove skin

starfish

carcass

cockle

mussla

bur

deprive … of

despoil

cartridge case

tortoise shell

bone

money cowrie

trochus

cocoon

outer layer

gin

pick off

artillery shell

cannonball

cast-off skin

husks

defeat

cuticula

monocoque

pelecypod

defense

pavache

package

wrapper

wrapping

shard

fort

Peel

chroma key

egg shell

clean

remove

withdraw

draw

boat

canoe

seedpod

ship

lay an egg

brachiopod

strike

spiral

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ʃɛl/

Etymology

From Middle English schelle, from Old English sċiell, from Proto-West Germanic *skallju, from Proto-Germanic *skaljō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cleave”).
Compare West Frisian skyl (“peel, rind”), Dutch schil (“peel, skin, rink”), Low German Schell (“shell, scale”), Irish scelec (“pebble”), Latin silex (“pebble, flint”), siliqua (“pod”), Old Church Slavonic сколика (skolika, “shell”). More at shale.
Doublet of sheal.
* (computing): From being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the operating-system internals.