| shell | |
| 1. n. A hard external covering of an animal. | |
| 2. n. The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates. | |
| In some mollusks, as the cuttlefish, the shell is concealed by the animal's outer mantle and is considered internal. | |
| Genuine mother-of-pearl buttons are made from sea shells. | |
| 3. n. (by extension) Any mollusk having such a covering. | |
| 4. n. (entomology) The exoskeleton or wing covers of certain insects. | |
| 5. n. The conjoined scutes that constitute the "shell" (carapace) of a tortoise or turtle. | |
| 6. n. The overlapping hard plates comprising the armor covering the armadillo's body. | |
| 7. n. The hard calcareous covering of a bird egg. | |
| 8. n. One of the outer layers of skin of an onion. | |
| The restaurant served caramelized onion shells. | |
| 9. n. (botany) The hard external covering of various plant seed forms. | |
| 10. n. 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. | |
| 11. n. A pod containing the seeds of certain plants, such as the legume Phaseolus vulgaris. | |
| 12. n. (in the plural) Husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is sometimes used as a substitute or adulterant for cocoa and its products such as chocolate | |
| 13. n. (geology) The accreted mineral formed around a hollow geode. | |
| 14. n. (weaponry) The casing of a self-contained single-unit artillery projectile. | |
| 15. n. (weaponry) 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 a | |
| 16. n. (weaponry) The cartridge of a breechloading firearm; a load; a bullet; a round. | |
| 17. n. (architecture) Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in, as the shell of a house. | |
| 18. n. 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. | |
| 19. n. A coarse or flimsy coffin; a thin interior coffin enclosed within a more substantial one. | |
| 20. n. (music) 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. | |
| 21. n. (music) 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. | |
| 22. n. An engraved copper roller used in print works. | |
| 23. n. (nautical) The watertight outer covering of the hull of a vessel, often made with planking or metal plating. | |
| 24. n. (nautical, rigging) The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve. | |
| 25. n. (nautical) A light boat whose frame is covered with thin wood, impermeable fabric, or water-proofed paper; a racing shell or dragon boat. | |
| 26. n. (computing) An operating system software user interface, whose primary purpose is to launch other programs and control their interactions; the user's command interpreter. | |
| The name shell originates from it being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the internals of the operating system. | |
| 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 | |
| 27. n. (chemistry) A set of atomic orbitals that have the same principal quantum number. | |
| 28. n. An emaciated person. | |
| He's lost so much weight from illness; he's a shell of his former self. | |
| 29. n. A psychological barrier to social interaction. | |
| Even after months of therapy he's still in his shell. | |
| 30. n. (business) A legal entity that has no operations. | |
| A shell corporation was formed to acquire the old factory. | |
| 31. n. A concave rough cast-iron tool in which a convex lens is ground to shape. | |
| 32. n. (engineering) A gouge bit or shell bit. | |
| 33. n. (phonology) The onset and coda of a syllable. | |
| 34. v. To remove the outer covering or shell of something. See sheller. | |
| 35. v. To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery. | |
| 36. v. (informal) To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out). | |
| 37. v. (intransitive) To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc. | |
| 38. v. (intransitive) To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk. | |
| Nuts shell in falling. | |
| Wheat or rye shells in reaping. | |
| 39. v. (computing, intransitive) To switch to a shell or command line. | |
| 40. v. To form shallow, irregular cracks (in a coating). | |
| 41. v. (topology) To form a shelling. | |
