Shĕll1, n.
n. [A-S. scell, Icel. skél. See SCALE.]
Sense 1. A hard outside covering; especially, that serving as the natural protection of certain fruits and animals; as, (a.) The covering or outside part of a nut; as, a hazel-nut shell. (b.) The covering of a crustaceous or testaceous animal; as, the shell of a lobster or an oyster. (c.) The covering or outside layer of an egg.
“Think him a serpent’s egg . . . And kill him in the shell.” Shak.
Sense 2. (Zoöl.) (a.) The hard organized substance forming the skeleton of many invertebrate animals, which is usually external, as in most mollusks, as the clam, the snail, and the like, but sometimes internal, as in some cephalopodous mollusks, like the Spirula. (b.) The hard covering of some vertebrates, as the armadillo, the tortoise, and the like.
Sense 3. (Mil.) A hollow sphere of iron, which, being filled with gunpowder, and fired from a mortar or cannon, bursts into pieces when the powder, ignited by a fuse, explodes; a bomb; a similar missile, of oblong form for rifled cannon, and sometimes made so as to explode by percussion on striking.
Sense 4. Any frame-work or exterior structure regarded as not complete or filled in; as, the shell of a house.
Sense 5. Hence, outward show without inward substance, “This outward shell of religion.” Ayliffe.
Sense 6. A coarse kind of coffin.
Sense 7. An instrument of music, as a lyre; the first lyre being made, it is said, by drawing strings over a tortoise-shell.
When Jubal struck the chorded shell. Dryden.
Sense 8. An engraved copper roller used in print-works. Simmonds.
Sense 9. (pl.) The husks of the cacao-seeds, a decoction of which is often used as a substitute for chocolate, cocoa, &c.
Fossil shells, shells dug from the earth. — Message-shell, a bomb-shell, 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. — Shell-boat, a boat constructed with a very light frame-work and covering. — Shell-gun, a gun fitted for throwing shells or bombs. — Shell of a boiler, the barrel; also, the plating.
