shell

Meaning

Noun

1. A hard external covering of an animal.
2. (broadly) 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. (in-plural) 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. (figuratively) The outward form independent of what is inside.
28. (figuratively) The empty outward form of someone or something.
29. An emaciated person.
30. (figuratively) 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. (UK, slang) A person's ear.
38. (British) 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. (intransitive) To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
5. (intransitive) To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk.
6. (intransitive) To switch to a shell or command line.
7. To form shallow, irregular cracks (in a coating).
8. To form a shelling.
9. (slang, transitive) To drop (the ball).

Synonyms

peel

hull

skin

husk

carapace

bark

casing

pod

crust

seashell

bombard

eggshell

bullet

shot

rind

cover

bomb

💣

case

cartridge

scale

strip

shuck

conch

frame

shield

🛡️

shellfish

projectile

pare

covering

trounce

beat out

envelope

✉️

vanquish

beat

nutshell

clear

blast

blanket

framework

fur

grenade

clam

cuticle

pellet

crush

leather

armor

coat

🧥

mussel

testa

Translations

coquille

🐚

Schale

concha

conchiglia

coque

🐚

cáscara

kabuk

Muschel

guscio

🐚

casca

concha

schelp

🐚

carapace

🐚

κέλυφος

schaal

🐚

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ʃɛl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: schelle

Inherited from Old English: sċiell

Cognate with Western Frisian: skyl

Cognate with Dutch: schil

Cognate with Low German: Schell

Cognate with Irish: scelec

Cognate with Latin: silex

Cognate with Church Slavic: сколика

In summary

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”), 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.

Sentences

He reached over and picked up a shell from the ground .