shell – English noun declension

English noun forms of shell

Noun: shell
Singularshell
Pluralshells

Sample Sentences

  • 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.
  • […] if with thee the roaring wells
  • ⁠Should gulf him fathom-deep in brine;
  • ⁠And hands so often clasp’d in mine,
  • Should toss with tangle and with shells. [1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto X”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:]
  • The restaurant served caramelized onion shells.
  • The black walnut and the hickory nut, both of the same Genus as the pecan, have much thicker and harder shells than the pecan.
  • Upstairs in that chill darkened room which nobody passes who can help it , the old Baronet lies in his coffin shell - an awful form faintly defined beneath the sheet [1877, Burke O'Farrell, Proud as Lucifer: A Novel:]
  • Then they lifted the body into the bag, setting it down like something breakable, zipped the bag, wrapped the whole thing in polythene and carried the stretcher into the shell. [2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 23:]
  • The first lyre may have been made by drawing strings over the underside of a tortoise shell.
  • when Jubal struck the chorded shell [1687, John Dryden, A Song for Cecilia's Day:]
  • The setback left him a mere shell; he was never the same again.
  • Mr. Thomas adds that, by the time it was scrapped, Kingsley was in very bad condition, little more than a shell in fact. In view of the rough usage to which the engine had been subjected, this is not surprising. [1953 April, “Notes and News: Locomotive Notes”, in Railway Magazine, page 283:]
  • He's lost so much weight from illness; he's a shell of his former self.
  • Since coming back from Vietnam, he's been a shell of his former self.
  • Even after months of therapy he's still in his shell.
  • 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 of being "born again".
  • A shell corporation was formed to acquire the old factory.
  • Can I have a quick word in your shell?
  • Chinese (Mandarin) is taught at Westminster from the Lower Shell as an optional subject. [2013, “Chinese (Mandarin)”, in Westminster School, retrieved 04 Dec 2023:]
  • a theory shell
  • a topicality shell

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH-
3. Proto-Indo-European *skol-yeh₂
4. Proto-Germanic *skaljō
5. Proto-West Germanic *skallju
6. Old English sċiell
7. Middle English schelle
8. English shell
9. 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”).
10. Cognates
11. 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.
12. Doublet of sheal.
13. * (computing): From being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the operating-system internals. See: Middle English Nouns 'schelle', Old English Nouns 'sċel', Dutch Nouns 'schil', Danish Nouns 'skæl', Norwegian Bokmål Nouns 'skjell', Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns 'skjel', Gothic Nouns '𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰', French Nouns 'écaille', Italian Nouns 'scaglia', Irish Nouns 'coill', Latin Nouns 'scalpō', Czech Nouns 'skála', Polish Nouns 'skała'.

Verbs referencing "shell"

English Nouns shrill, Old Norse Nouns skel, Swedish Nouns skal, Italian Nouns scaglia, Dutch Nouns schaal, Dutch Nouns schil, Danish Nouns skæl, Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns skjel.