shell
IPA: ʃˈɛɫ
noun
- A hard external covering of an animal.
- The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates.
- (by extension) Any mollusk having such a covering.
- (entomology) 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.
- (botany) The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
- The covering, or outside part, of a nut.
- A pod containing the seeds of certain plants, such as the legume Phaseolus vulgaris.
- (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.
- (geology) The accreted mineral formed around a hollow geode.
- (weaponry) The casing of a self-contained single-unit artillery projectile.
- (weaponry) 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.
- (weaponry) The cartridge of a breechloading firearm; a load; a bullet; a round.
- (architecture) Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in, as the shell of a house.
- 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.
- An unmarked vehicle for carrying corpses from a crime scene.
- (music) A string instrument, as a lyre, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell.
- (music) 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.
- An engraved copper roller used in print works.
- The thin coating of copper on an electrotype.
- (nautical) The watertight outer covering of the hull of a vessel, often made with planking or metal plating.
- (nautical, rigging) The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve.
- (nautical) A light boat whose frame is covered with thin wood, impermeable fabric, or water-proofed paper; a racing shell or dragon boat.
- (chemistry) A set of atomic orbitals that have the same principal quantum number.
- (figuratively) The outward form independent of what is inside.
- (figuratively) The empty outward form of someone or something.
- An emaciated person.
- A psychological barrier to social interaction.
- (computing) 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.
- (business) A legal entity that has no operations.
- A concave rough cast-iron tool in which a convex lens is ground to shape.
- (engineering) A gouge bit or shell bit.
- (phonology) The onset and coda of a syllable.
- (UK, slang) A person's ear.
- (Britain, education) One or more school grades within secondary education, at certain public schools.
- In formal debating, a set of proposed rules to be followed, with set penalties for violating them.
- A surname.
- A diminutive of the female given name Michelle.
verb
- To remove the outer covering or shell of something.
- To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery.
- (informal) To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out).
- (intransitive) To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
- (intransitive) To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk.
- (computing, intransitive) To switch to a shell or command line.
- To form shallow, irregular cracks (in a coating).
- (topology) To form a shelling.
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Examples of "shell" in Sentences
- The shell drove the implosion.
- The outline of the shell is oblongate.
- The valence shell is the outermost shell of an atom.
- The object is clear of the inner surface of the shell.
- The inner surface of the shell is blue and faintly pearly.
- Growth lines run horizontally over the surface of the shell.
- One must first cut a slit in the shell and the back of the animal.
- The shell was a two part carapace on the upper surface of the body.
- At the moment we have articles on exoskeleton, animal shell, and seashell.
- Both barometric and shell and tube surface condensers are used for this purpose.