shell
noun
[ ʃɛl ]
• the hard protective outer case of a mollusc or crustacean.
• "cowrie shells"
• an explosive artillery projectile or bomb.
• "the sound of the shell passing over, followed by the explosion"
• something resembling or likened to a shell because of its shape or its function as an outer case.
• "pasta shells"
• the metal framework of a vehicle body.
• a light racing boat.
• an inner or roughly made coffin.
• the hand guard of a sword.
• each of a set of orbitals around the nucleus of an atom, occupied or able to be occupied by electrons of similar energies.
• "in a multi-electron atom, the lowest energy shells fill up first"
• short for shell program.
shell
verb
• bombard with shells.
• "several villages north of the security zone were shelled"
Similar:
bombard,
fire on,
open fire on,
shoot at,
attack,
pound,
bomb,
blitz,
strafe,
cannonade,
• remove the shell or pod from (a nut or seed).
• "they were shelling peas"
Origin:
Old English scell (noun), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch schel ‘scale, shell’, also to scale1. The verb dates from the mid 16th century in shell (sense 2 of the verb).
