Definitions for SHellʃɛl

Random House Webster's College Dictionary

shellʃɛl(n.)

a hard outer covering of an animal, as of a clam, snail, lobster, or turtle.
Category: Zoology
the material constituting any of various coverings of this kind.
Category: Zoology
the hard exterior of an egg.
Category: Zoology
the usu. hard outer covering of a seed, fruit, or the like.
Category: Botany
something resembling the shell of an animal, as in shape or hollowness.
a hard, protecting or enclosing case or cover.
a reserved attitude or manner.
a hollow projectile, as for a cannon, filled with an explosive charge.
a metallic cartridge used in small arms.
Category: Military
a metal or paper cartridge for use in a shotgun.
Category: Military
a cartridgelike pyrotechnic device that explodes in the air.
Category: Military
an unfilled pastry crust, as for a pie.
Category: Cooking
a light, long, narrow racing boat for rowing by one or more persons.
Category: Nautical, Navy
the framework or external structure of a building.
the outer part of a finished garment that has an often detachable lining.
Category: Clothing
a woman's sleeveless blouse or sweater.
Category: Clothing
the plating or planking forming the exterior hull of a ship.
Category: Nautical, Navy
a computer program providing a menu-driven or graphical user interface designed to simplify use of the operating system, as in loading application programs.
Category: Computers
any of the electron orbits in an atom having the same principal quantum number and about the same energy. a group of nucleons of approximately the same energy.
Category: Physics
Ref: tortoiseshell (def. 1 ). 1
the curved solid forming a domed or arched roof.
Category: Civil Engineering
the metal, pressure-resistant outer casing of a fire-tube boiler.
Category: Building Trades
(v.t.)to remove the shell of.
to separate (corn, grain, etc.) from the ear, cob, or husk.
to fire shells or explosive projectiles into, upon, or among; bombard.
Category: Military
(v.i.)to fall or come out of the shell, husk, or pod.
to come away or fall off, as a shell or outer coat.
to gather seashells.
Category: Common Vocabulary
shell out,Informal. to pay (money).
Category: Verb Phrase

Origin of shell:

bef. 900; (n.) OE scell (Anglian), sciell, c. MD schelle pod, rind, ON skel seashell, Go skalja tile

shell′-less(adj.)

she'llʃil; unstressed ʃɪl

contraction of
she will.
Category: Usage Note

Princeton's WordNet

shell(noun)
ammunition consisting of a cylindrical metal casing containing an explosive charge and a projectile; fired from a large gun
shell(noun)
the material that forms the hard outer covering of many animals
carapace, shell, cuticle, shield(noun)
hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles
shell(noun)
the hard usually fibrous outer layer of some fruits especially nuts
shell, eggshell(noun)
the exterior covering of a bird's egg
shell(noun)
a rigid covering that envelops an object
"the satellite is covered with a smooth shell of ice"
shell, racing shell(noun)
a very light narrow racing boat
shell, case, casing(noun)
the housing or outer covering of something
"the clock has a walnut case"
plate, scale, shell(noun)
a metal sheathing of uniform thickness (such as the shield attached to an artillery piece to protect the gunners)
shell(verb)
the hard largely calcareous covering of a mollusc or a brachiopod
blast, shell(verb)
use explosives on
"The enemy has been shelling us all day"
blast, shell(verb)
create by using explosives
"blast a passage through the mountain"
shell(verb)
fall out of the pod or husk
"The corn shelled"
shell(verb)
hit the pitches of hard and regularly
"He shelled the pitcher for eight runs in the first inning"
shell(verb)
look for and collect shells by the seashore
beat, beat out, crush, shell, trounce, vanquish(verb)
come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
"Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship"; "We beat the competition"; "Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game"
shell(verb)
remove from its shell or outer covering
"shell the legumes"; "shell mussels"
husk, shell(verb)
remove the husks from
"husk corn"

Kernerman English Learner's Dictionary

shell(noun)ʃɛl
the outer covering of some soft animals
a crab/snail/oyster/clam shell; a shell necklace
shellʃɛl
the hard covering of a nut or egg
pieces of egg shell
shellʃɛl
the hard covering around an explosive
shotgun/artillery shells
shell(verb)ʃɛl
to attack a place with large guns
The army shelled the city for days.
shellʃɛl
to take the covering off a nut, seed, etc.
Shell the pumpkin seeds first.

Wiktionary

shell(Contraction)
Contraction of she will or she shall.
shell(Noun)
The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates.
shell(Noun)
The hard calcareous covering of a bird egg.
shell(Noun)
The exoskeleton or wing covers of certain insects.
shell(Noun)
The covering, or outside part, of a nut.
The black walnut and the hickory nut, both of the same Genus as the pecan, have much thicker and harder shells than the pecan.
shell(Noun)
A pod containing the seeds of certain plants, such as the legume Phaseolus vulgaris.
shell(Noun)
Husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is sometimes used as a substitute or adulterant for cocoa and its products such as chocolate.
shell(Noun)
The conjoined scutes that comprise the "shell" (carapace) of a tortoise or turtle.
shell(Noun)
The overlapping hard plates comprising the armor covering the armadillo's body.
shell(Noun)
The accreted mineral formed around a hollow geode.
shell(Verb)
To remove the outer covering or shell of something. See sheller.
shell(Verb)
To bombard, to fire projectiles at.
shell(Verb)
To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out).
shell(Noun)
The casing of a self-contained single-unit artillery projectile.
shell(Noun)
A hollow usually spherical or cylindrical projectile fired from a seige 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 scattered at high velocity its contents and fragments. Formerly called a bomb.
shell(Noun)
The cartridge of a breechloading firearm; a load; a bullet; a round.
shell(Noun)
Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in, as the shell of a house.
shell(Noun)
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.
shell(Noun)
A coarse or flimsy coffin; a thin interior coffin enclosed within a more substantial one.
shell(Noun)
A string instrument, as a lyre, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell.
The first lyre may have been made by drawing strings over the underside of a tortoise shell.
shell(Noun)
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.
shell(Noun)
An engraved copper roller used in print works.
shell(Noun)
The watertight outer covering of the hull of a vessel, often made with planking or metal plating.
shell(Noun)
The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve.
shell(Noun)
A light boat the frame of which is covered with thin wood, impermeable fabric, or water-proofed paper; a racing shell or dragon boat.
shell(Noun)
An operating system software user interface, whose primary purpose is to launch other programs and control their interactions; the user's command interpreter.
shell(Noun)
A set of atomic orbitals that have the same principal quantum number.
shell(Noun)
An emaciated person.
He's lost so much weight from illness; he's a shell of his former self.
shell(Noun)
A psychological barrier to social interaction.
Even after months of therapy he's still in his shell.
shell(Noun)
A legal entity that has no operations.
A shell corporation was formed to acquire the old factory.
Shell(ProperNoun)
A diminutive of the female given name Michelle.

Origin: schelle, from (Anglian) scell 'eggshell, seashell', (South) sciell, sciel, from skēlō (cf. West Frisian skyl 'peel, rind', Dutch schil 'peel, skin, rink', Low German 'shell, scale'), from (s)kel- 'to split, cleave' (cf. Irish scelec 'pebble', Latin silex 'pebble, flint', siliqua 'pod', Old Church Slavonic 'shell'). More at shale.

Webster Dictionary

Shell(noun)
a hard outside covering, as of a fruit or an animal
Shell(noun)
the covering, or outside part, of a nut; as, a hazelnut shell
Shell(noun)
a pod
Shell(noun)
the hard covering of an egg
Shell(noun)
the hard calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates. In some mollusks, as the cuttlefishes, it is internal, or concealed by the mantle. Also, the hard covering of some vertebrates, as the armadillo, the tortoise, and the like
Shell(noun)
hence, by extension, any mollusks having such a covering
Shell(noun)
a hollow projectile, of various shapes, adapted for a mortar or a cannon, and containing an explosive substance, ignited with a fuse or by percussion, by means of which the projectile is burst and its fragments scattered. See Bomb
Shell(noun)
the case which holds the powder, or charge of powder and shot, used with breechloading small arms
Shell(noun)
any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in; as, the shell of a house
Shell(noun)
a coarse kind of coffin; also, a thin interior coffin inclosed in a more substantial one
Shell(noun)
an instrument of music, as a lyre, -- the first lyre having been made, it is said, by drawing strings over a tortoise shell
Shell(noun)
an engraved copper roller used in print works
Shell(noun)
the husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is often used as a substitute for chocolate, cocoa, etc
Shell(noun)
the outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve
Shell(noun)
a light boat the frame of which is covered with thin wood or with paper; as, a racing shell
Shell(verb)
to strip or break off the shell of; to take out of the shell, pod, etc.; as, to shell nuts or pease; to shell oysters
Shell(verb)
to separate the kernels of (an ear of Indian corn, wheat, oats, etc.) from the cob, ear, or husk
Shell(verb)
to throw shells or bombs upon or into; to bombard; as, to shell a town
Shell(verb)
to fall off, as a shell, crust, etc
Shell(verb)
to cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk; as, nuts shell in falling
Shell(verb)
to be disengaged from the ear or husk; as, wheat or rye shells in reaping

The New Hacker's Dictionary

shell
[orig. Multics techspeak, widely propagated via Unix] 1. [techspeak] The command interpreter used to pass commands to an operating system; so called because it is the part of the operating system that interfaces with the outside world. 2. More generally, any interface program that mediates access to a special resource or server for convenience, efficiency, or security reasons; for this meaning, the usage is usually a shell around whatever. This sort of program is also called a wrapper. 3. A skeleton program, created by hand or by another program (like, say, a parser generator), which provides the necessary incantations to set up some task and the control flow to drive it (the term driver is sometimes used synonymously). The user is meant to fill in whatever code is needed to get real work done. This usage is common in the AI and Microsoft Windows worlds, and confuses Unix hackers.Historical note: Apparently, the original Multics shell (sense 1) was so called because it was a shell (sense 3); it ran user programs not by starting up separate processes, but by dynamically linking the programs into its own code, calling them as subroutines, and then dynamically de-linking them on return. The VMS command interpreter still does something very like this.