Word Meanings - SHELL - Book Publishers vocabulary database

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,

Additional info about word: 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. Hence, by extension, any mollusks having such a covering. (more info) shel, Icel. skel, Goth. skalja a tile, and E. skill. Cf. Scale of 1. A hard outside covering, as of a fruit or an animal. Specifically: The covering, or outside part, of a nut; as, a hazelnut shell. A pod. The hard covering of an egg. Think him as a serpent's egg, . . . And kill him in the shell. Shak.

Related words: (words related to SHELL)

• COVER-POINT
  The fielder in the games of cricket and lacrosse who supports "point."
• OTHERGUISE; OTHERGUESS
  Of another kind or sort; in another way. "Otherguess arguments." Berkeley.
• COVERLET
  The uppermost cover of a bed or of any piece of furniture. Lay her in lilies and in violets . . . And odored sheets and arras coverlets. Spenser.
• CONCEALED
  Hidden; kept from sight; secreted. -- Con*ceal"ed*ly (, adv. -- Con*ceal"ed*ness, n. Concealed weapons , dangerous weapons so carried on the person as to be knowingly or willfully concealed from sight, -- a practice forbidden by statute.
• MANTLE
  See WINGS (more info) mantellum, mantelum, a cloth, napkin, cloak, mantle (cf. mantele, mantile, towel, napkin); prob. from manus hand + the root of tela 1. A loose garment to be worn over other garments;
• COVERCLE
  A small cover; a lid. Sir T. Browne.
• EXTERNAL
  Away from the mesial plane of the body; lateral. External angles. See under Angle. (more info) 1. Outward; exterior; relating to the outside, as of a body; being without; acting from without; -- opposed to internal; as, the external
• COVERT BARON
  Under the protection of a husband; married. Burrill.
• INTERNALLY
  1. Inwardly; within the enveloping surface, or the boundary of a thing; within the body; beneath the surface. 2. Hence: Mentally; spiritually. Jer. Taylor.
• OTHER
  Either; -- used with other or or for its correlative (as either . . . or are now used). Other of chalk, other of glass. Chaucer.
• COVERTNESS
  Secrecy; privacy.
• COVERER
  One who, or that which, covers.
• OTHERNESS
  The quality or state of being other or different; alterity; oppositeness.
• COVERCHIEF
  A covering for the head. Chaucer.
• COVERTLY
  Secretly; in private; insidiously.
• COVER
  operire to cover; probably fr. ob towards, over + the root appearing 1. To overspread the surface of with another; as, to cover wood with paint or lacquer; to cover a table with a cloth. 2. To envelop; to clothe, as with a mantle or cloak. And
• EXTERNALLY
  In an external manner; outwardly; on the outside; in appearance; visibly.
• COVERING
  Anything which covers or conceals, as a roof, a screen, a wrapper, clothing, etc. Noah removed the covering of the ark. Gen. viii. 13. They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold. Job. xxiv. 7. A covering
• COVERAGE
  The aggregate of risks covered by the terms of a contract of insurance.
• COVER-SHAME
  Something used to conceal infamy. Dryden.
• NOTOTHERIUM
  An extinct genus of gigantic herbivorous marsupials, found in the Pliocene formation of Australia.
• ISOGEOTHERMAL; ISOGEOTHERMIC
  Pertaining to, having the nature of, or marking, isogeotherms; as, an isogeothermal line or surface; as isogeothermal chart. -- n.
• RECOVER
  To cover again. Sir W. Scott.
• SMOTHER
  Etym: 1. To destroy the life of by suffocation; to deprive of the air necessary for life; to cover up closely so as to prevent breathing; to suffocate; as, to smother a child. 2. To affect as by suffocation; to stife; to deprive of air by a thick
• ISOTHEROMBROSE
  A line connecting or marking points on the earth's surface, which have the same mean summer rainfall.
• ANOTHER-GUESS
  Of another sort. It used to go in another-guess manner. Arbuthnot.
• UNMOTHERED
  Deprived of a mother; motherless.
• ISOTHERMAL
  Relating to equality of temperature. Having reference to the geographical distribution of temperature, as exhibited by means of isotherms; as, an isothermal line; an isothermal chart. Isothermal line. An isotherm. A line drawn on a diagram
• EEL-MOTHER
  The eelpout.
• ISOTHERMOBATHIC
  Of or pertaining to an isothermobath; possessing or indicating equal temperatures in a vertical section, as of the ocean.
• MICACEO-CALCAREOUS
  Partaking of the nature of, or consisting of, mica and lime; -- applied to a mica schist containing carbonate of lime.
• MOTHER-OF-PEARL
  The hard pearly internal layer of several kinds of shells, esp. of pearl oysters, river mussels, and the abalone shells; nacre. See Pearl.
• MOTHER'S DAY
  A day appointed for the honor and uplift of motherhood by the loving remembrance of each person of his mother through the performance of some act of kindness, visit, tribute, or letter. The founder of the day is Anna Jarvis, of Philadelphia, who
• STEPMOTHER
  The wife of one's father by a subsequent marriage.