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Shell   Listen
noun
Shell  n.  
1.
A hard outside covering, as of a fruit or an animal. Specifically:
(a)
The covering, or outside part, of a nut; as, a hazelnut shell.
(b)
A pod.
(c)
The hard covering of an egg. "Think him as a serpent's egg,... And kill him in the shell."
(d)
(Zool.) 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.
(e)
(Zool.) Hence, by extension, any mollusks having such a covering.
2.
(Mil.) A hollow projectile, of various shapes, adapted for a mortar or a cannon, and containing an explosive substance, ignited with a fuse or by percussion, by means of which the projectile is burst and its fragments scattered. See Bomb.
3.
The case which holds the powder, or charge of powder and shot, used with breechloading small arms.
4.
Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in; as, the shell of a house.
5.
A coarse kind of coffin; also, a thin interior coffin inclosed in a more substantial one.
6.
An instrument of music, as a lyre, the first lyre having been made, it is said, by drawing strings over a tortoise shell. "When Jubal struck the chorded shell."
7.
An engraved copper roller used in print works.
8.
pl. The husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is often used as a substitute for chocolate, cocoa, etc.
9.
(Naut.) The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve.
10.
A light boat the frame of which is covered with thin wood or with paper; as, a racing shell.
11.
Something similar in form or action to an ordnance shell; specif.:
(a)
(Fireworks) A case or cartridge containing a charge of explosive material, which bursts after having been thrown high into the air. It is often elevated through the agency of a larger firework in which it is contained.
(b)
(Oil Wells) A torpedo.
12.
A concave rough cast-iron tool in which a convex lens is ground to shape.
13.
A gouge bit or shell bit.
Message shell, a bombshell inside of which papers may be put, in order to convey messages.
Shell bit, a tool shaped like a gouge, used with a brace in boring wood. See Bit, n., 3.
Shell button.
(a)
A button made of shell.
(b)
A hollow button made of two pieces, as of metal, one for the front and the other for the back, often covered with cloth, silk, etc.
Shell cameo, a cameo cut in shell instead of stone.
Shell flower. (Bot.) Same as Turtlehead.
Shell gland. (Zool.)
(a)
A glandular organ in which the rudimentary shell is formed in embryonic mollusks.
(b)
A glandular organ which secretes the eggshells of various worms, crustacea, mollusks, etc.
Shell gun, a cannon suitable for throwing shells.
Shell ibis (Zool.), the openbill of India.
Shell jacket, an undress military jacket.
Shell lime, lime made by burning the shells of shellfish.
Shell marl (Min.), a kind of marl characterized by an abundance of shells, or fragments of shells.
Shell meat, food consisting of shellfish, or testaceous mollusks.
Shell mound. See under Mound.
Shell of a boiler, the exterior of a steam boiler, forming a case to contain the water and steam, often inclosing also flues and the furnace; the barrel of a cylindrical, or locomotive, boiler.
Shell road, a road of which the surface or bed is made of shells, as oyster shells.
Shell sand, minute fragments of shells constituting a considerable part of the seabeach in some places.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Shell" Quotes from Famous Books



... be equally practicable for mastication; the Arabs pound them between stones, by which rough process they detach the edible portion in the form of a resinous powder. The rind of the nut which produces this powder is about a quarter of an inch thick; this coating covers a strong shell which contains a nut of vegetable ivory, a little larger than a full-sized walnut. When the resinous powder is detached, it is either eaten raw, or it is boiled into a delicious porridge, with milk; this has ...
— The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia • Samuel W. Baker

... about the police situation up there, for they've got a straight inspector. Now, I want that four hundred right now. We sent you just what was ordered and if I don't get the money right now you get blacklisted. Shell out!" ...
— Traffic in Souls - A Novel of Crime and Its Cure • Eustace Hale Ball

... seated in her rock-roof'd dell, Listening the secrets of the vernal grove, Breathes sweetest strains to thy symphonious shell, And gives new echoes to the ...
— The Botanic Garden - A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: The Economy of Vegetation • Erasmus Darwin

... frightened in his sleep. Another child dreams of wolves or tigers. A person who has been guilty of an act from which bad consequences are possible dreams that those consequences are realized. The officer suffering from nervous war strain, or "shell shock", often had nightmares in which he was attacked and worsted by the enemy. Since Freud has never admitted that dreams could be fear-motived, holding that here, as in worry, the fear is but ...
— Psychology - A Study Of Mental Life • Robert S. Woodworth

... with ferns of a vivid green. We found large violets, purple and white, and azaleas of a deeper pink and heavier fragrance than ours. It was leaving Paradise, to emerge from the beautiful woods upon the public road,—the shell-road which runs from Beaufort to the Ferry. Then we entered a by-way leading to the plantation, where we found the Cherokee rose in all its glory. The hedges were white with it; it canopied the trees, and hung from ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 80, June, 1864 • Various

... of Mansalar, lying off and affording shelter to the bay of Tappanuli, presents to the view a fall of very striking appearance, the reservoir of which the natives assert (in their fondness for the marvellous) to be a huge shell of the species called kima (Chama gigas) found in great quantities in that bay, as well as at New Guinea and other parts of the east.* At the bottom of this fall ships occasionally take in their water without being under the necessity of landing their casks; but ...
— The History of Sumatra - Containing An Account Of The Government, Laws, Customs And - Manners Of The Native Inhabitants • William Marsden

... a bag of clothes in the other. 'E's in the boat when 'e thinks to go back for a package of seed 'e'd left for the canary on the shelf in the galley. 'Hurry up with your bird-seed,' I says, and as I do a shell comes along and explodes inside of 'er old frame somewheres, and the cook says maybe 'e'll be gettin' along without the seed—the canary not being what you'd ...
— The U-boat hunters • James B. Connolly

... tool.[10] No less archaic in decoration was the iron-bodied version of the plow plane (fig. 51). The Anglo-American tradition seems completely put aside. In its place is a most functional object, but one elaborately covered with a shell and vine motif! Patented in 1870 by Charles Miller and manufactured by the Stanley Rule and Level Company, this tool in its unadorned version is of a type that was much admired by the British experts at Philadelphia's Centennial Exhibition in 1876. ...
— Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 • Peter C. Welsh

... open bill, or with wings half raised from the eggs. Then, one night, she heard faint tappings and peepings beneath her. Sturdy young bills began chipping at the inside of the shells, speedily breaking them. Each duckling, as he chipped the shell just before the tip of his beak, would turn a little way around in his narrow quarters; till presently the shell would fall apart, neatly divided into halves; and the wet duckling, tumbling forth, would snuggle up against ...
— The Backwoodsmen • Charles G. D. Roberts

... like what she was then. We both attended Madame Whitney's seminary. Perhaps you have heard of the institution; it is a very old and justly famous school." She wondered at the beautiful flush that stole into the girl's flower-like face—like the soft, faint tinting of a sea-shell. "She married a wealthy planter," pursued the lady, reflectively; "but she did not live long to enjoy her happy home. One short year after she married Evalia Hurlhurst died." The lady never forgot the strange glance that ...
— Daisy Brooks - A Perilous Love • Laura Jean Libbey

... and driving them back; shells were exploding around and above us as we again came out upon the road. Soon we passed a soldier lying near a fence, wounded. It proved to be William McCann, of K Company, (of Newport) of the 2d Rhode Island; he had been struck in the head by a fragment of shell, and died soon after. I think he was the first man wounded belonging ...
— History of Company F, 1st Regiment, R.I. Volunteers, during the Spring and Summer of 1861 • Charles H. Clarke

... any vegetable or fruit. The blush upon the peach is in striking contrast to the serried walls of the seed within; who will explain the mystery of the apple, the queen of the orchard, or the nut with its meat, its shell, and its outer covering? Who taught the tomato vine to fling its flaming many-mansioned fruit before the gaze of the passer-by, while the potato modestly conceals its priceless gifts within ...
— In His Image • William Jennings Bryan

... his rays like a shower of burning silver, and in spite of the puggaree with which he had provided himself, Bob found the heat almost too much for him, and looked enviously at old Dick, who lay back in the bows of the little cockle-shell of a boat, with his knees in, his chin pointing upwards, and his arms resting on the sides, literally basking in the ...
— Middy and Ensign • G. Manville Fenn

... had my reward. The birds ceased to regard me as an enemy, and, though they always looked at me, no longer tried to keep out of sight, or to hide the object of their visits. During the first day of watching I had the good fortune to see a second empty shell brought out of the nest, and dropped a little farther off than the first had been; and I feel safe in assuming that these two were the birthdays of the babes in ...
— Little Brothers of the Air • Olive Thorne Miller

... interesting spots to visit are Thursday Island and Norfolk Island, both British possessions, and the first a place of some importance, as the centre of the Torres Straits pearl-shell fishery. This trade has demoralized the natives, who now seem to spend a great part of their time in getting drunk, the Europeans too often setting the example, 'It is a common thing,' says Mr. Romilly, 'for a diver to go down three-parts drunk. The dress ...
— The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886 • Various

... peeped archly, She reminded you of some demure chapter in an old-world book. After she had finished with her flowers in the mornings she would walk through the kitchen garden and thence into her orchard. Four or five tortoise-shell cats and two sleek spaniels followed her around, and took a dignified interest in her proceedings. When the lady had visited the cows in the paddock she walked through the dairy and got ready to go out. When she came ...
— The Romance of the Coast • James Runciman

... four pounds of different varieties of fish, including one lobster. The fish should be cleaned and cut into small square pieces; the lobster should be cut in sections, leaving the shell on. Add a bunch of parsley, three sliced tomatoes, one large whole clove of garlic, chopped fine, three bay-leaves, half a dozen cloves, one teaspoonful of saffron, three sliced onions, one cupful of olive-oil, salt and pepper to season, and enough water to cover. Bring to ...
— How to Cook Fish • Olive Green

... of all her reassurances would come a swift, blinding vision of gallant Bucky being led to his death that crumpled her courage as a hammer might an empty egg shell. What was the use of her pretending all was well when at that very moment they might be murdering him? Then in her agony she would pace up and down, wringing her hands, or would beat them on the stone walls till the soft ...
— Bucky O'Connor • William MacLeod Raine

... impassive man touched the tiller, obeying an instinct, seeing into the dark beyond. Now a bit of cliff loomed in the fog, again a shingled roof or a cluster of firs, and the whistling buoy at the harbor's mouth began to bellow sadly,—reminders all of the shell of that world towards which they sailed. And at last the harbor, with its echoing bells and fog-whistles, the protesting shrieks of its man-machines; suddenly the colossal hull of a schooner at ...
— Together • Robert Herrick (1868-1938)

... when the great heat is abated. People send to one another to know if any of their family has a mind to have the small-pox; they make parties for this purpose, and when they are met, the old woman comes with a nut-shell full of the matter of the best sort of small-pox, and asks what vein you please to have opened. She immediately rips open that you offer her with a large needle, and puts into the vein as much matter as can lie upon the head of her needle, and after ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... the sale of books, or "objects of devotion," all so arranged that the open portion might be cleared, and the stock- in-trade locked up if not carried away. Each stall had its own sign, most of them sacred, such as the Lamb and Flag, the Scallop Shell, or some patron saint, but classical emblems were oddly intermixed, such as Minerva's AEgis, Pegasus, and the Lyre of Apollo. The sellers, some middle-aged men, some lads, stretched out their arms with their wares to attract the passengers in the street, and did not fail ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... the outer shell That wraps the 'kernel of the people's lore,' Hold THAT for superstition; and they tell That seven lovely sisters dwelt of yore In this old city, where it so befell That one a Poet loved; that, furthermore, As stars above us she ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Jean Ingelow

... year I was one of the Public Examiners for the B.A. degree. In 1828 I became Vicar of St. Mary's. It was to me like the feeling of spring weather after winter; and, if I may so speak, I came out of my shell; I remained out of it ...
— Apologia Pro Vita Sua • John Henry Cardinal Newman

... especially the large room, is startling in that mantel, door trim, chair rail, and baseboard are carved with the delicate lightness of Adam. The feature of this room is, of course, the mantel which is centered between two large shell-like shallow recessed arches, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. The room might have been done by ...
— Seaport in Virginia - George Washington's Alexandria • Gay Montague Moore

... poison of that exquisite wine. So transparently white grew his skin, so huge and velvety his black eyes, so serious his finely chiselled mouth, that even Celestine and Cerisette began to feel, somewhere beneath that hardened outer shell of "temperament," a disregarded organ filled with a long-forgotten, aching sensation that was not to be encouraged. Regarding the quiet boy whose gold embroidery glittered so bravely in the light, ...
— The Genius • Margaret Horton Potter

... appearance. This membrane is the only evidence of ectoplasm, and it frequently shows folds and wrinkles, while its contour slowly changes with movements of body. The pseudopodia emerge from the body between this membrane and the shell margin. Contractile vacuole absent. Length 42 mu, width 35 mu. ...
— Marine Protozoa from Woods Hole - Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 21:415-468, 1901 • Gary N. Galkins

... to the shore and I am goin' to give you a feast." Burney made a wood fire, and after taking the mussels from the shell, put them in the stew-pan and let them boil for a short time, then putting them on the broiler, he held them over the live wood coals. "Squeeze a little of that lemon juice over them, Shawn, and season 'em up—now try one." ...
— Shawn of Skarrow • James Tandy Ellis

... around our camp fires we heard a boom, and a bomb shell passed over our heads. The Yankee army was right on the other bank of the Tennessee river. Bragg did not know of their approach until the ...
— "Co. Aytch" - Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment - or, A Side Show of the Big Show • Sam R. Watkins

... parts of the adornment of the women whom he knew. There in the mountains young girls did not wear them, save of the "circular" variety, designed to hold back "shingled" tresses. But from underneath a box of faded gum-drops and the store's one carton of cigars, came some of imitation tortoise-shell, gilt ornamented, of the sort old ladies sometimes stuck into their hirsute knots for mountain "doings" of great elegance, and the best of these Madge bought. Also she bought lace—great quantities of ...
— In Old Kentucky • Edward Marshall and Charles T. Dazey

... leopards, strained and lean, The treacherous Russian knows so well, With gaping blackened jaws are seen To leap through hail of screaming shell. ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 8 • Various

... Echo, sweetest Nymph that liv'st unseen Within thy airy shell By slow Meander's margent green, And in the violet imbroider'd vale Where the love-lorn Nightingale Nightly to thee her ...
— Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama - A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration - Stage in England • Walter W. Greg

... temple. Atargatis, who was identical with Derceto, was reputed in another form of the legend to have been born of an egg which the sacred fishes found in the Euphrates and thrust ashore (p. 28). The Greek Aphrodite was born of the froth of the sea and floated in a sea-shell. ...
— Myths of Babylonia and Assyria • Donald A. Mackenzie

... the bursting of shell that shook the very walls to their foundation. And through it and above it, high and horrible as the laughter of storm-fiends there came ...
— The Keeper of the Door • Ethel M. Dell

... "Shells are often called bombs, a word which signifies great noise; because, when they burst, they make a great noise. They consist of a large shell of cast iron, which is round and hollow. A hole is made through the shell to receive a fusee, as it is called; this is a small pipe, or hollow piece of wood, which is filled with some combustible ...
— Whig Against Tory - The Military Adventures of a Shoemaker, A Tale Of The Revolution • Unknown

... clustered thickets of mint, north through one of the strange little forests where it became a thread edged with a duck-haunted bog, then emerging as a clear deep stream once more it curved sharply south, recurved north again, and flowed into Shell Pond which, in turn, had an outlet into the Sound a mile east ...
— The Younger Set • Robert W. Chambers

... roared Hilmarc. "It must be a friend of Connel's or Sinclair's. He won't dare fire an atomic shell near this house, for fear of killing his friends! Now get aboard your ships and ...
— The Revolt on Venus • Carey Rockwell

... which burst a certain time after leaving the gun without striking against anything, took its name from its inventor. The chief peculiarity of shrapnel is that the bullets fall from above in a shower from the shell as it bursts ...
— Stories That Words Tell Us • Elizabeth O'Neill

... from the door was a semicircular alcove, known as the "Shell," which gave its name to the form sitting there. On both sides ran rows of benches and narrow desks, three deep, raised one above the other. On the left hand on entering was the Under School, and, standing on the floor in front of it, was the arm-chair ...
— Captain Bayley's Heir: - A Tale of the Gold Fields of California • G. A. Henty

... soldier? That hot-headed, cunning fellow, De Baisemeaux, will make him pay dearly for my trick—if he returns without the letter, what will they do to him? Besides, I don't want the letter; when the egg has been sucked, what is the good of the shell?" D'Artagnan perceived that the commissary and the archers had succeeded in convincing the soldier, and went on their way with the prisoner, the latter being still surrounded by the crowd and continuing his complaints. D'Artagnan advanced into the very middle ...
— The Vicomte de Bragelonne - Or Ten Years Later being the completion of "The Three - Musketeers" And "Twenty Years After" • Alexandre Dumas

... the shock of shattering spears, Of screaming shell and shard, Snatched from the smoke that blinds and sears They come with bodies scarred, And count the hours that idly toll, Restless until their hurts be healed, And they may fare, made strong and whole, To ...
— The Bed-Book of Happiness • Harold Begbie

... kiss his white nose as he drooped it into her little arms. Her visits to the stable had been discovered and forbidden, but the scandal was even greater when she was found in the paddock, standing on an inverted bucket, and grooming the white horse with Lady Louisa's tortoise-shell dressing-comb. ...
— Jan of the Windmill • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... in our own case, how strangely there come swimming up before us, out of the depths of the dim waters of oblivion—as one has seen some bright shell drawn from the sunless sea-caves, and gleaming white and shapeless far down before we had it on the surface—past thoughts, we know not whence or how. Some one of the million of hooks, with which all our life is furnished, has laid hold of some subtle ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... the hill, charged right up to the position. The British, however, repulsed them, and the guards, carried away by the excitement of the moment, followed them with reckless ardor. The French reserves of infantry and cavalry came up, the artillery plied the British with shot and shell, the fugitives rallied and again came to the attack, and the Guards fell back in confusion. The Germans next to them, severely pressed, began to waver, and for a time it seemed that the British, victorious upon both flanks, ...
— The Young Buglers • G.A. Henty

... sea, and they were so full of light, both from the sunset that was fading upon the water and from candles that maids were lighting one by one, that it looked far off like a pearl, shimmering still in its haliotis shell, still wet ...
— The Book of Wonder • Edward J. M. D. Plunkett, Lord Dunsany

... an exceptionally fine specimen of shell-bark hickory, and the base was nearly six inches in diameter, but it was as straight as a line, apparently, and it was fully thirty feet to ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: Exploring the Island • Roger Thompson Finlay

... Lieutenant colonel William Barrett Travis word that the Mexican light cavalry had completely invested Bexar, and that some light guns were being set up across the San Antonio River. Even as he spoke, there was a flash and bang from the west, and a shell screamed over the old mission walls. ...
— Remember the Alamo • R. R. Fehrenbach

... through the window, I found that the cottage was a mere shell, all open under the eaves, so that the birds could go in and out anywhere. The nest was over the top of a window, and the owner thereof ran along the beam beside it, in great dudgeon at my impertinent staring. Had ever a pair of wrens ...
— A Bird-Lover in the West • Olive Thorne Miller

... adventures. He determined to go abroad for a time, and having an old score to settle with Manabozho, he set out with a hope of soon falling in with that famous giant. Grasshopper was a blood relation of Dais Imid, or He of the Little Shell, and had heard of what had passed between ...
— The Indian Fairy Book - From the Original Legends • Cornelius Mathews

... gives rise to the same increased ionisation towards the end of its range, as Bragg determined in the case of gases. And we must conclude that the halo in every case grows in this manner. A spherical shell of darkened biotite is first produced and the inner colouration is only effected as the more feeble ionisation along the track of the ray in course of ages gives rise to sufficient alteration of the mineral. This more feeble ionisation is, ...
— The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays • J. (John) Joly

... Spherical Case.—A thin shell of cast-iron filled with bullets, with a fuse, and a charge of powder sufficient to burst it. ...
— My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field • Charles Carleton Coffin

... in a little house, And lived there very well; I thought the world was small and round, And made of pale blue shell. ...
— How to Tell Stories to Children - And Some Stories to Tell • Sara Cone Bryant

... any circumstances, place your trenches where you can see the enemy a long way off. If you do, he will inevitably see you too, and will shell you out of them in no time. You need not be afraid of being rushed; a field of fire of two hundred yards or so will be sufficient to wipe him off the face of ...
— The First Hundred Thousand • Ian Hay

... rear-admiral, and he was given a most enthusiastic reception, for his passage of the Mississippi was recognized as an extraordinary feat. An examination of his ship showed that she had been struck 240 times by shot and shell in her nineteen ...
— American Men of Action • Burton E. Stevenson

... where he slept, but in the darkness he pushed it with his hand before he had grasped it, and it fell upon the floor. Groping about to find it, his hand came suddenly upon something which felt soft and cool—an object apparently about the size and shape of a hen's egg, yet not hard like an egg-shell, but elastic and yielding readily to the pressure of the fingers. What it was the sense of touch did not enable him to guess, and as yet the light was insufficient to permit him to distinguish anything clearly. And, marvellous to relate, ...
— Tales of the Caliph • H. N. Crellin

... such couches a good deal of decoration was lavished in the way of veneerings of ornamental wood, or thin plates of ivory or tortoise-shell, or reliefs in bronze or even in gold or silver. The feet might also, in the richer houses, consist of silver or of ivory. For the dining-rooms of people of wealth a special feature was made of such work upon the conspicuous ...
— Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul • T. G. Tucker

... cord was tied to a tree, or made fast to a rock upon the beach. The remora being thus set—just as one would set a baited hook—was left free to follow its own inclinations,—which usually were to fasten its sucking-plates against the shell of one of the great sea-turtles,—so famed at aldermanic feasts and prized by modern gourmets, and equally relished by ...
— The Ocean Waifs - A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea • Mayne Reid

... Jackyo Became Rich. Truth and Falsehood. Camanla and Parotpot. Juan, the Student. The Two Wives and the Witch. The Living Head. Juan Pusong. The Enchanted Ring. The Enchanted Shell. The Three Brothers. The Datto Somacuel. Magboloto. Why Dogs Wag Their Tails. The Eagle and the Hen. The Spider and the Fly. The Battle of the Crabs. The Meeting of the Plants. Who Brings the Cholera? Masoy and the ...
— Philippine Folk-Tales • Clara Kern Bayliss, Berton L. Maxfield, W. H. Millington,

... choice of a route in coming home was enough, and more than enough, to seal his tongue. He was sensitive in the extreme, and any lack of sympathy or comprehension made him retire immediately into his shell. His aunt's demeanour imparted an air of reserve even to the description he gave her of the attractions of Moorcombe Court. Perhaps the good lady was a trifle sore at never having been invited there herself. One never knows. At any rate, her attitude was chilling. So as regarded ...
— Austin and His Friends • Frederic H. Balfour

... peculiarities of the constructive science of their day, which aimed simply to attain solidity and protection from the elements. The chimneys and end-walls were generally built of stone, laid up as random rubble, with mortar composed of shell lime, sand, and gravel, and flakes of broken slate pounded fine. The sides of these buildings, and the ends above the line of roof-plate, were of frame construction, made of heavy oak timber, rudely squared, put together with treenails and boarded with oak, ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 • Various

... What, I wonder, was the thought of the little creatures as their comfortable world was suddenly shattered by some vast, inexplicable power beyond the scope of their vision and understanding? I could not help idly wondering whether the shell of our comfortable world has been broken by some power without which is as far beyond our apprehension as I was beyond the apprehension of the happy dwellers in ...
— Pebbles on the Shore • Alpha of the Plough (Alfred George Gardiner)

... towns of Democratic Australia. This sort of thing came to a head one New Year's Night at Redclay, when there was a 'public' ball and peace on earth and good will towards all men—mostly on account of a railway to Redclay being surveyed. We were all there. They'd got the Doc. out of his shell to act as M.C. ...
— Over the Sliprails • Henry Lawson

... like a Turkish pasha. His feet were bare, after the fashion of tailors who sit at work; and the first thing which caught the eye was his thumb, with a deformed nail thick and strong as a turtle's shell. About Petrovitch's neck hung a skein of silk and thread, and upon his knees lay some old garment. He had been trying unsuccessfully for three minutes to thread his needle, and was enraged at the darkness and even at the thread, growling ...
— Taras Bulba and Other Tales • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

... the rest of us quiet. I don't know how he did it, but when he spoke he made our hearts burn within us; and to show him we were his children, incapable of balking, didn't we rush at the mouths of the rascally cannon, that belched and vomited shot and shell, without so much as saying, 'Look out!' Why! the dying must needs raise their heads to salute him and cry, 'LONG ...
— Folk Tales Every Child Should Know • Various

... it was soon overpowered. Freed now from the Russian grapeshot and sabres, Ney held on his course like a torrent that masters a dam, reached the upper part of the lake, and threw the bewildered foe into its waters or into the town. Friedland was now a death-trap: huddled together, plied by shell, shot and bayonet, the Russians fought from street to street with the energy of despair, but little by little were driven back on the bridges. No help was to be found there; for Senarmont, bringing ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose

... speaker finished by coming forward with one of the smaller things in his hand, which he offered personally to Louis, and then shook hands with us all and retired. Among these smaller presents were many fish-hooks for large fishing, laboriously carved from mother-of-pearl shell. One man came with one egg in each hand saying 'carry these to Scotland with you, let them hatch into cocks, and their song shall remind you of Tautira.' The schoolmaster, with a leaf-basket of rose apples, ...
— The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls • Jacqueline M. Overton

... conspirator but for an accident. During the latter time of the bombardment, he, the Medecin des Pauvres, was on the eastern ramparts, and his attention was suddenly called to a man mortally wounded by the splinter of a shell. While examining the nature of the wound; De Mauleon, who was also on the ramparts, came to the spot. The dying man said, 'M. le Vicomte, you owe me a service. My name is Marc le Roux. I was on the police before the war. When M. de. Mauleon reassumed his station, and was making himself obnoxious ...
— The Parisians, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... Had a bomb-shell exploded at Lady Jane's feet and struck her in the face she could not have been more astonished. Stepping quickly back from this claimant to her notice, her face grew pale for an instant, and then flushed with anger, ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes

... of the Armada would soon have felt at home in a three-decker of 1815. But he would have been helpless as a child in the fire-driven iron monsters that fought at Hampton Roads. The shift from sail to steam, from oak to iron, from shot to shell, and from muzzle-loading smoothbore to breech-loading rifle began about 1850; and progress thereafter was so swift that an up-to-date ship of each succeeding decade was capable of defeating a whole squadron of ten years before. Success came ...
— A History of Sea Power • William Oliver Stevens and Allan Westcott

... revolver leaped to a level from his right-hand scabbard. He had forgotten, in his moment of study, that with this six-shooter he had fired once at the whisky barrel, once at the glass of straws, once at the negro's heel, twice at the floor, and once at the broomstick. The click on the empty shell was heard clearly at the hotel bar, distinctly ahead of the double report that followed. For, such was the sharpness of this man's mental and muscular action, he had dropped the empty revolver from his right hand ...
— The Girl at the Halfway House • Emerson Hough

... his brother to carry the basket of lobsters up on the pier, and then, as they were rather heavy, and as a delivery wagon from a grocery where Mrs. Racer traded was at hand, Frank decided to send the shell ...
— Frank and Andy Afloat - The Cave on the Island • Vance Barnum

... of a great many plants are furnished with downy filaments, which act as wings; these are taken up by the wind and carried immense distances; others are inclosed in an elastic shell, from which, when ripe, they are ...
— Willis the Pilot • Paul Adrien

... with a charming smile, 'has put the matter into the shell of a nut; Australia is my plough, and I do not take my hand away until I ...
— Madame Midas • Fergus Hume

... the dismal shell does any one ever descend from the first grade who has for penalty only hope cut off?"[1] This question I put, and he answered me, "Seldom it happens that any one of us maketh the journey on which I am going. It is true that another time ...
— The Divine Comedy, Volume 1, Hell [The Inferno] • Dante Alighieri

... and derives the word jadon from nadan, which means sheath, or shell. But as the interpretation is very clumsy, so he clothes it also in a very clumsy word: My Spirit shall not be inclosed in man as in a sheath. Has anything more unnatural ever been heard? But the Jews ...
— Commentary on Genesis, Vol. II - Luther on Sin and the Flood • Martin Luther

... carefully cleared at the end of each course, should present about the same faultless appearance at the close of the feast as at its beginning. The guests being seated at their respective places, Majolica plates containing raw oysters on the half-shell, or otherwise, with a piece of lemon in the center are, if not already in place, immediately put before each guest. The roll, or piece of bread, should be at once removed from the folds of the napkin, and the servants, when all are seated, pass red and black pepper. ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke

... carried over the hills which rise above the valley of the Dordogne. The woods were mainly of chestnut, and, under the action of the storm, followed by the first frost, many a nut lay shining on the road within its gaping prickly shell. After two or three miles of ascent the road sloped downward, and it was not long before I entered a very neat and trim little town, which, however, was altogether village-like. This was Cadouin, and in ...
— Two Summers in Guyenne • Edward Harrison Barker

... first time as a tall child-girl in a high-waisted, blue serge frock, plainly made with long plain sleeves, at the end of which appeared two large hands shining red and shapeless with chilblains. She attracted Miriam at once with the shell-white and shell-pink of her complexion, her firm chubby baby-mouth and her wide gaze. Her face shone in the room, even her hair—done just like the Martins', but fluffy where theirs was flat and shiny—seemed to give out light, shadowy-dark though ...
— Pointed Roofs - Pilgrimage, Volume 1 • Dorothy Richardson

... disconsolately for next season out of all the windows. The very man who goes about like an erect Turtle, between two boards recommendatory of the Sixteen Shilling Trousers, is aware of himself as a hollow mockery, and eats filberts while he leans his hinder shell ...
— The Uncommercial Traveller • Charles Dickens

... of lofty mirrors, and The tables, most of ebony inlaid With mother of pearl or ivory, stood at hand, Or were of tortoise-shell or rare woods made, Fretted with gold or silver:—by command, The greater part of these were ready spread With viands and sherbets in ice—and wine— Kept for all comers at all hours ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... lifted the tortoise-shell cat, lying on the rug at her feet. She was not fond of cats, and she was only attentive to puss as the best means of hiding her blushes. Ducie understood the small, womanly ruse, and waited no other answer. "What is the matter with the squire, ...
— The Squire of Sandal-Side - A Pastoral Romance • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... which was warned and waiting for her; had sunk and sailed through the big Government boat and her crew of lubberly soldiers, many of whom, he was glad to reflect, were drowned; had crushed the officer, against whom he had a personal grudge, like an egg-shell, and won through to the open sea. There he thought he was sure of her, for he took it for granted that she would run for the Norfolk coast, and knew that in the gale of wind which was blowing his larger and well-manned vessel could pull her down. But then the ill-luck—that ancient ...
— Lysbeth - A Tale Of The Dutch • H. Rider Haggard

... proverb, "What is one man's meat is another man's poison," is a genuine truth, and is exemplified by hundreds of instances. Many people are unable to eat fish without subsequent disagreeable symptoms. Prominent among the causes of urticaria are oysters, crabs, and other shell fish, strawberries, raspberries, and other fruits. The abundance of literature on this subject makes an exhaustive collection of data impossible, and only a few of the prominent and striking instances can ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... end to the attack," the captain said quietly. "Order the men to load with shell, and to direct their aim in the first place at the rajah's palace; there is no occasion for ...
— Among Malay Pirates - And Other Tales Of Adventure And Peril • G. A. Henty

... obediently came to heel. The pair then proceeded into the woods, which, so they say, as soon as the two entered, were shaken by a violent whirlwind. But at last the priest led his charge to the edge of the pool below the waterfall, then producing a walnut-shell with a hole in it, handed it to the ...
— Legend Land, Volume 2 • Various

... remember something in Weir of Hermiston about a girl being 'an explosive engine,'" he said. "But I don't see that she can do any very great harm round here. We're both pretty well proof against shell shock. The worst that could happen would be if she got hold of my private copy of Fireside Conversation in the Age of Queen Elizabeth. Remind me to lock ...
— The Haunted Bookshop • Christopher Morley

... "There, don't shell any more now, Tom; I have something to say to you. You asked why we came west. The time has come when you had better know something of our history; it may help you decide ...
— The Cabin on the Prairie • C. H. (Charles Henry) Pearson

... house full of company, the doctor felt bound to come out of his shell to entertain them," as ...
— The Heiress of Wyvern Court • Emilie Searchfield

... has no investment to return to him. Such a life, entering the harbor of old age, is like unto a bestormed ship with empty coal bins, whose crew fed the furnace, first with the cargo and then with the furniture, and reached the harbor, having made the ship a burned-cut shell. God buries the souls of many men long years before their bodies ...
— The Investment of Influence - A Study of Social Sympathy and Service • Newell Dwight Hillis

... him one fine mornin' with a thumpin' 'unk iv shell; Put it in 'n' all across him. What he was you couldn't tell. I saw him stitched 'n' mended where he whimpered in his bed, 'N' he'd on'y lived because he was afraid to die, he said. Sez he "Struth, they're out there fightin', trimmin' Boshes good 'n' smart, While I'm bedded here 'n' 'elpless. ...
— 'Hello, Soldier!' - Khaki Verse • Edward Dyson

... my practice away from me!" cried Schulze. He looked utterly unlike his daughter at first glance, but on closer inspection there was an intimate resemblance, like that between the nut and its rough, needle-armored shell. "Well, I guess she hasn't botched it." This in a pleased voice, after an admiring inspection of the workmanlike bandage. ...
— The Second Generation • David Graham Phillips

... had been born under the red-black-and-yellow banner. I had seen a country, one of the loveliest and most peaceable in Europe, invaded by a ruthless and brutal soldiery; I had seen its towns and cities blackened by fire and broken by shell; I had seen its churches and its historic monuments destroyed; I had seen its highways crowded with hunted, homeless fugitives; I had seen its fertile fields strewn with the corpses of what had once been ...
— Fighting in Flanders • E. Alexander Powell

... Thorwald, as passive of feature as though he announced something of the most infinitesimal importance, and were not hurling a bomb-shell whose explosion, was to shake old Bannister terrifically, spoke in a matter-of-fact manner: "I shall not play ...
— T. Haviland Hicks Senior • J. Raymond Elderdice

... after the death of the physical body the Kamarupa is comparatively quickly formed, and the etheric double cast off—this latter body being destined to slow disintegration, precisely as is the kamarupic shell at a later stage of the proceedings. This etheric shell, however, is not to be met with drifting aimlessly about, as is the variety with which we have hitherto been dealing; on the contrary, it remains ...
— The Astral Plane - Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena • C. W. Leadbeater

... hearty meal: soft-shell crabs fried brown, with lemon and parsley, coffee ready-mixed with milk and sugar, sliced tomatoes with raw onions, all served in cheap little bare rooms, at scarred little bare tables, a hundred feet from the sea. Later came the amusements: railways and flying-swings enjoyed simultaneously ...
— Martie the Unconquered • Kathleen Norris

... black and void, And as I looked around, distress and fear Came creeping over me, when at my side, Close at my side, an uncouth shape appeared 75 Upon a dromedary, mounted high. He seemed an Arab of the Bedouin tribes: A lance he bore, and underneath one arm A stone, and in the opposite hand a shell Of a surpassing brightness. At the sight 80 Much I rejoiced, not doubting but a guide Was present, one who with unerring skill Would through the desert lead me; and while yet I looked and looked, self-questioned what this freight Which the new-comer carried through the waste 85 Could ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. III • William Wordsworth

... felt too much afraid of him to utter a single word, and suffered herself to be led with extraordinary politeness to the breakfast-table. Here he by no means diminished the impression he had just produced, for he ate hard eggs, shell and all, devoured gigantic prawns with the heads and tails on, chewed tobacco and water-cresses at the same time and with extraordinary greediness, drank boiling tea without winking, bit his fork and spoon till they bent again, and in short performed so many horrifying and uncommon acts that ...
— The Old Curiosity Shop • Charles Dickens

... him to desist from the sacrilege. Close to this was a little round deal table, on which would be set the miller's single glass of gin and water, which would be made to last out the process of his evening smoking, and the candle, by the light of which, and with the aid of a huge pair of tortoise-shell spectacles, his wife would sit and darn her husband's stockings. She also had her own peculiar chair in this corner, but she had never accustomed herself to the luxury of arms to lean on, and had ...
— The Vicar of Bullhampton • Anthony Trollope

... from his injuries and a peculiar mask he used to hide them, was known as "L'homme a la tete de cire." The Lancet gives his history briefly as follows: During the Franco-Prussian War, he was horribly wounded by the bursting of a Prussian shell. His whole face, including his two eyes, were literally blown away, some scanty remnants of the osseous and muscular systems, and the skull covered with hair being left. His wounds healed, giving him such a hideous and ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... Our knowing seems rather rejection than acceptance, so much is husk in bulk. From eight thousand miles of geology the tree takes a few drops of water and distils from these its own again. Vigor of mind is judgment, which divides the meat from the shell, that which cumbers from that which thrills. The act is simple, inevitable; let it be energetic and final. We say, "This is valuable, it quickens me; the rest is nonsense." A feeble mind needs now chiefly to be rid of rubbish, of cheap admirations, an awe before the ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 76, February, 1864 • Various

... the Pasig River, on the Binondo side, opposite Fort Santiago and the Walled City, there is an ancient adobe building thatched with nipa. Its narrow door opens on the waterfront. High and narrow windows, devoid of glass or shell, are mere slits cut through the walls. Seen from the river, they have a striking resemblance to the gun-ports ...
— Isle o' Dreams • Frederick F. Moore

... contradict her; but I'll take my Bible oath that not one word about shell-fish of any kind had been mentioned that morning—nothing but a great city lion, Rockaways, bivalves, and animals like them. Still I said nothing, but went out encouraged by the idea that I was to have something to eat ...
— Phemie Frost's Experiences • Ann S. Stephens



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