shell
/ʃɛl/ noun A2- 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.
- Any mollusk having such a covering.
- The exoskeleton or wing covers of certain insects.
- The conjoined scutes that constitute the "shell" (carapace) of a tortoise or turtle.
- The overlapping hard plates comprising the armor covering the armadillo's body.
- The hard calcareous covering of a bird egg.
- One of the outer layers of skin of an onion. · The restaurant served caramelized onion shells.
- 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.
Plural shells
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
The sea, knowing what was required of her, threw over them her weeds, encircled them with coral, and encrusted them with shells; the whole was cemented by two hundred years beneath these almost impervious depths, for a revolution carried away the emperor who wished to make the trial, and only left the documents proving the manufacture of the jars and their descent into the sea.
“I will give you,” she said, “all the riches of the Red Sea.” “I will teach you to fly then,” said the Eagle; and taking her up in his talons he carried her almost to the clouds suddenly he let her go, and she fell on a lofty mountain, dashing her shell to pieces.
And the loud-humming, twisted shells?
Seeking shells and seaweed on the sands of Monterey,
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