Definitions of shell [ʃɛl]

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Definition of 'shell'

Random House Webster's College Dictionary

1. (n.) shell
a hard outer covering of an animal, as of a clam, snail, lobster, or turtle.

2.  shell
the material constituting any of various coverings of this kind.

3.  shell
the hard exterior of an egg.

4.  shell
the usu. hard outer covering of a seed, fruit, or the like.

5.  shell
something resembling the shell of an animal, as in shape or hollowness.

6.  shell
a hard, protecting or enclosing case or cover.

7.  shell
a reserved attitude or manner.

8.  shell
a hollow projectile, as for a cannon, filled with an explosive charge.

9.  shell
a metallic cartridge used in small arms.

10.  shell
a metal or paper cartridge for use in a shotgun.

11.  shell
a cartridgelike pyrotechnic device that explodes in the air.

12.  shell
an unfilled pastry crust, as for a pie.

13.  shell
a light, long, narrow racing boat for rowing by one or more persons.

14.  shell
the framework or external structure of a building.

15.  shell
the outer part of a finished garment that has an often detachable lining.

16.  shell
a woman's sleeveless blouse or sweater.

17.  shell
the plating or planking forming the exterior hull of a ship.

18.  shell
a computer program providing a menu-driven or graphical user interface designed to simplify use of the operating system, as in loading application programs.

19.  shell
any of the electron orbits in an atom having the same principal quantum number and about the same energy.

20.  shell
a group of nucleons of approximately the same energy.

21.  shell
the curved solid forming a domed or arched roof.

22.  shell
the metal, pressure-resistant outer casing of a fire-tube boiler.

23. (v.t.) shell
to remove the shell of.

24.  shell
to separate (corn, grain, etc.) from the ear, cob, or husk.

25.  shell
to fire shells or explosive projectiles into, upon, or among; bombard.

26. (v.i.) shell
to fall or come out of the shell, husk, or pod.

27.  shell
to come away or fall off, as a shell or outer coat.

28.  shell
to gather seashells.

29.  shell
Informal. to pay (money).

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

Definition of 'shell'

Princeton's WordNet

1. (noun) shell
ammunition consisting of a cylindrical metal casing containing an explosive charge and a projectile; fired from a large gun

2. (noun) shell
the material that forms the hard outer covering of many animals

3. (noun) carapace, shell, cuticle, shield
hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles

4. (noun) shell
the hard usually fibrous outer layer of some fruits especially nuts

5. (noun) shell, eggshell
the exterior covering of a bird's egg

6. (noun) shell
a rigid covering that envelops an object
"the satellite is covered with a smooth shell of ice"

7. (noun) shell, racing shell
a very light narrow racing boat

8. (noun) shell, case, casing
the housing or outer covering of something
"the clock has a walnut case"

9. (noun) plate, scale, shell
a metal sheathing of uniform thickness (such as the shield attached to an artillery piece to protect the gunners)

10. (verb) shell
the hard largely calcareous covering of a mollusc or a brachiopod

11. (verb) blast, shell
use explosives on
"The enemy has been shelling us all day"

12. (verb) blast, shell
create by using explosives
"blast a passage through the mountain"

13. (verb) shell
fall out of the pod or husk
"The corn shelled"

14. (verb) shell
hit the pitches of hard and regularly
"He shelled the pitcher for eight runs in the first inning"

15. (verb) shell
look for and collect shells by the seashore

16. (verb) beat, beat out, crush, shell, trounce, vanquish
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"

17. (verb) shell
remove from its shell or outer covering
"shell the legumes"; "shell mussels"

18. (verb) husk, shell
remove the husks from
"husk corn"

Definition of 'shell'

Kernerman English Learner’s Dictionary

1. (noun) shell
the outer covering of some soft animals
a crab/snail/oyster/clam shell; a shell necklace

2.  shell
the hard covering of a nut or egg
pieces of egg shell

3.  shell
the hard covering around an explosive
shotgun/artillery shells

4. (verb) shell
to attack a place with large guns
The army shelled the city for days.

5.  shell
to take the covering off a nut, seed, etc.
Shell the pumpkin seeds first.

Definition of 'shell'

Webster Dictionary

1. (noun) shell
a hard outside covering, as of a fruit or an animal

2. (noun) shell
the covering, or outside part, of a nut; as, a hazelnut shell

3. (noun) shell
a pod

4. (noun) shell
the hard covering of an egg

5. (noun) shell
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

6. (noun) shell
hence, by extension, any mollusks having such a covering

7. (noun) shell
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

8. (noun) shell
the case which holds the powder, or charge of powder and shot, used with breechloading small arms

9. (noun) shell
any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in; as, the shell of a house

10. (noun) shell
a coarse kind of coffin; also, a thin interior coffin inclosed in a more substantial one

11. (noun) shell
an instrument of music, as a lyre, -- the first lyre having been made, it is said, by drawing strings over a tortoise shell

12. (noun) shell
an engraved copper roller used in print works

13. (noun) shell
the husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is often used as a substitute for chocolate, cocoa, etc

14. (noun) shell
the outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve

15. (noun) shell
a light boat the frame of which is covered with thin wood or with paper; as, a racing shell

16. (verb) shell
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

17. (verb) shell
to separate the kernels of (an ear of Indian corn, wheat, oats, etc.) from the cob, ear, or husk

18. (verb) shell
to throw shells or bombs upon or into; to bombard; as, to shell a town

19. (verb) shell
to fall off, as a shell, crust, etc

20. (verb) shell
to cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk; as, nuts shell in falling

21. (verb) shell
to be disengaged from the ear or husk; as, wheat or rye shells in reaping

Definitions of 'shell'

The New Hacker's Dictionary

1. 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.

Translation of 'shell'

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary

Sense: the hard outer covering of a shellfish, egg, nut etc an eggshell; A tortoise can pull its head and legs under its shell.
Afrikaans: dop	Arabic: مَحارَه، صَدَفَه	Bulgarian: черупка
Brazilian: concha	Czech: skořápka, krunýř, lastura	German: die Schale
Danish: skal; -skal; skjold; -skj	Greek: κέλυφος, όστρακο, τσόφλι	Spanish: concha, caracol
Estonian: koor, kilp	Farsi: پوست	Finnish: kuori
French: coquille, coquillage, car	Hebrew: קְלִיפָּה	Hindi: छिलका
Croatian: oklop,školjka	Hungarian: héj	Indonesian: cangkang
Icelandic: skel; skurn	Italian: guscio, conchiglia	Japanese: 貝がら
Korean: 껍질	Lithuanian: kiautas	Latvian: čaumala; čaula; gliemežnī
Malay: cangkerang	Dutch: omhulsel	Norwegian: skall, skjell
Polish: skorupa	Persian: پوست	Pashto: پوست
Portuguese: concha	Romanian: scoică; cochilie; coajă;	Russian: раковина; панцирь; скорлу
Slovak: škrupina, pancier, lastúr	Slovenian: lupina	Serbian: ljuštura
Swedish: snäcka, skal, [snigels] h	Thai: เปลือกหอย	Turkish: kabuk
Taiwanese: 殼、甲	Ukrainian: шкаралупа, лушпина	Urdu: خول ، چھلکا
Vietnamese: vỏ, mai	Chinese: 壳、甲
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