Phonetic: "/ʃɛl/"
Part Of Speech: noun
Definition: A hard external covering of an animal.
Definition: The hard calcareous covering of a bird egg.
Definition: One of the outer layers of skin of an onion.
Example: The restaurant served caramelized onion shells.
Definition: The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
Definition: The accreted mineral formed around a hollow geode.
Definition: The casing of a self-contained single-unit artillery projectile.
Definition: 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 scattered at high velocity its contents and fragments. Formerly called a bomb.
Definition: The cartridge of a breechloading firearm; a load; a bullet; a round.
Definition: Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in, as the shell of a house.
Definition: 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.
Definition: A coarse or flimsy coffin; a thin interior coffin enclosed within a more substantial one.
Definition: A string instrument, as a lyre, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell.
Example: The first lyre may have been made by drawing strings over the underside of a tortoise shell.
Definition: 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.
Definition: An engraved copper roller used in print works.
Definition: The thin coating of copper on an electrotype.
Definition: The watertight outer covering of the hull of a vessel, often made with planking or metal plating.
Definition: (rigging) The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve.
Definition: A light boat whose frame is covered with thin wood, impermeable fabric, or water-proofed paper; a racing shell or dragon boat.
Definition: A set of atomic orbitals that have the same principal quantum number.
Definition: The outward form independent of what is inside.
Definition: The empty outward form of someone or something.
Example: The setback left him a mere shell; he was never the same again.
Definition: An emaciated person.
Example: He's lost so much weight from illness; he's a shell of his former self.
Definition: A psychological barrier to social interaction.
Example: Even after months of therapy he's still in his shell.
Definition: 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.
Example: The name "Bash" is an acronym which stands for "Bourne-again shell", itself a pun on the name of the "Bourne shell", an earlier Unix shell designed by Stephen Bourne, and the Christian concept of being "born again".
Definition: A legal entity that has no operations.
Example: A shell corporation was formed to acquire the old factory.
Definition: A concave rough cast-iron tool in which a convex lens is ground to shape.
Definition: A gouge bit or shell bit.
Definition: The onset and coda of a syllable.
Definition: A person's ear.
Example: Can I have a quick word in your shell?