9 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Shell \Shell\, n. [OE. shelle, schelle, AS scell, scyll; akin
to D. shel, Icel. skel, Goth. skalja a tile, and E. skill.
Cf {Scale} of fishes, {Shale}, {Skill}.]
1. A hard outside covering, as of a fruit or an animal.
Specifically:
a The covering, or outside part of a nut; as a
hazelnut shell.
b A pod.
c The hard covering of an egg.
Think him as a serpent's egg, . . . And kill him
in the shell. --Shak.
d (Zo["o]l.) 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
e (Zo["o]l.) Hence by extension, any mollusks having
such a covering.
2. (Mil.) 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}.
3. The case which holds the powder, or charge of powder and
shot, used with breechloading small arms.
4. Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior
structure, regarded as not complete or filled in as the
shell of a house.
5. A coarse kind of coffin; also a thin interior coffin
inclosed in a more substantial one --Knight.
6. An instrument of music, as a lyre, -- the first lyre
having been made it is said by drawing strings over a
tortoise shell.
When Jubal struck the chorded shell. --Dryden.
7. An engraved copper roller used in print works
8. pl The husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is
often used as a substitute for chocolate, cocoa, etc
9. (Naut.) The outer frame or case of a block within which
the sheaves revolve.
10. A light boat the frame of which is covered with thin wood
or with paper; as a racing shell.
{Message shell}, a bombshell inside of which papers may be
put in order to convey messages.
{Shell bit}, a tool shaped like a gouge, used with a brace in
boring wood. See {Bit}, n., 3.
{Shell button}.
a A button made of shell.
b A hollow button made of two pieces, as of metal, one
for the front and the other for the back -- often
covered with cloth, silk, etc
{Shell cameo}, a cameo cut in shell instead of stone.
{Shell flower}. (Bot.) Same as {Turtlehead}.
{Shell gland}. (Zo["o]l.)
a A glandular organ in which the rudimentary shell is
formed in embryonic mollusks.
b A glandular organ which secretes the eggshells of
various worms, crustacea, mollusks, etc
{Shell gun}, a cannon suitable for throwing shells.
{Shell ibis} (Zo["o]l.), the openbill of India.
{Shell jacket}, an undress military jacket.
{Shell lime}, lime made by burning the shells of shellfish.
{Shell marl} (Min.), a kind of marl characterized by an
abundance of shells, or fragments of shells.
{Shell meat}, food consisting of shellfish, or testaceous
mollusks. --Fuller.
{Shell mound}. See under {Mound}.
{Shell of a boiler}, the exterior of a steam boiler, forming
a case to contain the water and steam, often inclosing
also flues and the furnace; the barrel of a cylindrical,
or locomotive, boiler.
{Shell road}, a road of which the surface or bed is made of
shells, as oyster shells.
{Shell sand}, minute fragments of shells constituting a
considerable part of the seabeach in some places.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Shell \Shell\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Shelled}; p. pr & vb n.
{Shelling}.]
1. 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.
2. To separate the kernels of (an ear of Indian corn, wheat,
oats, etc.) from the cob, ear, or husk.
3. To throw shells or bombs upon or into to bombard; as to
shell a town.
{To shell out}, to distribute freely; to bring out or pay as
money. [Colloq.]
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Shell \Shell\, v. i.
1. To fall off as a shell, crust, etc
2. To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of
the pod or husk; as nuts shell in falling.
3. To be disengaged from the ear or husk; as wheat or rye
shells in reaping.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Shell \Shell\, n.
1. Something similar in form or action to an ordnance shell;
specif.:
a (Fireworks) A case or cartridge containing a charge of
explosive material, which bursts after having been
thrown high into the air. It is often elevated through
the agency of a larger firework in which it is
contained.
b (Oil Wells) A torpedo.
2. A concave rough cast-iron tool in which a convex lens is
ground to shape.
3. A gouge bit or shell bit.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
shell
adj : having a shell or or containing shell; "shell marl"
n 1: cylindrical metal casing containing an explosive charge and
a projectile; fired from a large gun
2: the material that forms the hard outer covering of many
animals
3: hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as
arthropods and turtles [syn: {carapace}]
4: the hard usually fibrous outer layer of some fruits
especially nuts
5: a rigid covering that envelops an object; "the satellite is
covered with a smooth shell of ice"
6: the exterior covering of a bird's egg [syn: {eggshell}]
7: a very light narrow racing boat [syn: {racing shell}]
8: the outer covering or housing of something "the clock has a
walnut case" [syn: {case}, {casing}]
9: a metal sheathing of uniform thickness (such as the shield
attached to an artillery piece to protect the gunners)
[syn: {plate}, {scale}]
10: the hard largely calcareous covering of a mollusc
v 1: use explosives on "The enemy has been shelling us all day"
[syn: {blast}, {strafe}]
2: take something out of its shell or pod, such as peas or
beans [syn: {pod}]
From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:
Shell, WY
Zip code(s): 82441
From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]:
shell [orig. {{Multics}} n. 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 {incantation}s 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
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]:
SHELL
An early system on the {Datatron 200} series.
[Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)].
[{Jargon File}]
(1995-05-11)
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]:
shell
1. (Originally from {Multics}, widely
propagated via {Unix}) 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.
The commonest Unix shells are the c shell ({csh}) and the
Bourne shell ({sh}).
2. (Or "wrapper") 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.
[{Jargon File}]
(1995-05-11)
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