shell
verbEtymology
From Middle English schelle, from Old English sċel, sċell, sċiell, sċil, sċill, sċyl, sċyll, from Proto-West Germanic *skallju, from Proto-Germanic *skaljō (“shell; husk; rind; peel”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to cut; to separate, split”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch schil (“bark, rind, skin; crust; shell; slice”), Danish skæl (“scale; dandruff”), Faroese and Icelandic skel (“shell”), Norwegian Bokmål skjell (“shell; scale”), Norwegian Nynorsk skjel (“shell; bivalve; scale; carapace”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰 (skalja, “brick, tile”), French écaille (“scale; shell”), Friulian scae (“scale”), Italian scaglia (“scale; flake, sliver; splinter”); also Breton killi (“grove”), Cornish kelli (“grove”), Irish coill (“forest, wood”), Manx keyll (“forest, wood; grove, plantation”), Scottish Gaelic coille (“forest”), Welsh celli (“grove”), Latin scalpō (“to scratch; to carve”), Ancient Greek σκᾰ́λλω (skắllō, “to hoe, stir up”), Albanian çel (“to open up; to sprout; to hatch up; to rise”), Lithuanian skelti (“to crack, split”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian скала́ (skalá, “cliff, rock”), Czech skála (“rock”), Polish skała, skáła, szkała (“rock”), Slovak and Slovene skala (“rock”), Ukrainian скала́ (skalá), ска́ля (skálja, “cliff, rock”), Armenian քաղել (kʻaġel, “to pick; to gather; to mow”), Sanskrit कॢप् (kḷp, “to order; to manage; to perform; to create; to cut”). More at shale. Doublet of sheal. * (computing): From being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the operating-system internals.
9 senses
- 1To remove the outer covering or shell of something.
- 2To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery.
- 3To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out).
- 4To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
- 5To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of…
- 6To switch to a shell or command line.
- 7To form shallow, irregular cracks (in a coating).
- 8To form a shelling.
- 9To drop (the ball).
To remove the outer covering or shell of something.
To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery.
- The guns shelled the enemy trenches.
- There wasn’t even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 203:
Informal To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out).
To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
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.
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences To switch to a shell or command line.
- Automenu is a good program to try, and offers a fair amount of protection - but, unfortunately, it's one of those systems that allow users to shell to DOS.1993, Robin Nixon, The PC Companion, page 115:
To form shallow, irregular cracks (in a coating).
Mathematics, Sciences, Topology To form a shelling.
Ball games, Cricket, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Slang To drop (the ball).
- He shelled it, and dislocated his finger in the process.2022, Nicholas Brookes, An Island's Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket:
- Derived terms
- like shelling peas, shellable, sheller, shell out