Search the Dictionary

A shell; esp. a spherical shell, like those fired from mortars. See Shell.

To attack with bombards or with artillery; especially, to throw shells, hot shot, etc., at or into. Next, she means to bombard Naples. Burke. His fleet bombarded and burnt down Dieppe. Wood.

An attack upon a fortress or fortified town, with shells, hot shot, rockets, etc.; the act of throwing bombs and shot into a town or fortified place.

A structure which heavy shot and shell will not penetrate.

Indies. -- Bonnet limpet (Zoöl.), a name given, from their shape, to various species of shells (family Calyptræidæ). -- Bonnet monkey (Zoöl.), an East Indian monkey (Macacus sinicus), with a tuft of hair on its head; the munga. -- Bonnet piece, a gold coin of the time of James V. of Scotland, the king's head on whic…

of tallow, sulphur, and resin, as a temporary protection against worms, after the slime, shells, etc., have been scraped off.

strains in its members. A boiler brace is a diagonal stay, connecting the head with the shell.

One of the Brachiopoda, or its shell.

A class of Molluscoidea having a symmetrical bivalve shell, often attached by a fleshy peduncle.

To clean, as a ship's bottom of adherent shells, seaweed, etc., by the application of fire and scraping.

To open or make a passage, as by a bridge. Xerxes . . . over Hellespont Bridging his way, Europe with Asia joined. Milton.

sembling the genus Buccinum, or pertaining to the Buccinidæ, a family of marine univalve shells. See Whelk, and Prosobranchiata.

A large spiral marine shell, esp. the common whelk. See Buccinum. [Scot.] Deil's buckie, a perverse, refractory youngster. [Slang]

The anterior segment of the shell of trilobites.

Decorative woodwork in which tortoise shell, yellow metal, white metal, etc., are inlaid, forming scrolls, cartouches, etc. [Written also boule, boulework.]

A genus of land snails having an elongated spiral shell, often of large size. The species are numerous ingabundant in tropical America.

A genus of marine shells. See Bubble shell.

button and drawing it through a buttonhole, as in buttoning boots and gloves. -- Button shell (Zoöl.), a small, univalve marine shell of the genus Rotella. -- Button snakeroot. (Bot.) (a) The American composite genus Liatris, having rounded buttonlike heads of flowers. (b) An American umbelliferous plant with rigid,…

ive in cylindrical cases, open at each end, and covered externally with pieces of broken shells, gravel, bits of wood, etc. They are a favorite bait with anglers. Called also caddice worm, or caddis worm. Caddice fly (Zoöl.), a species of trichopterous insect, whose larva is the caddice.

A water dipper, bottle, backet, or other utensil, made from the dry shell of a calabash or gourd. Calabash tree. (Bot.), a tree of tropical America (Crescentia cujete), producing a large gourdike fruit, containing a purgative pulp. Its hard shell, after the removal of the pulp, is used for cups, bottles, etc. The Afric…