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or fragment of an earthen vessel, or a like brittle substance, as the shell of an egg or snail. Shak. The precious dish Broke into shards of beauty on the board. E. Arnold.

l and concealed in the mantle, or altogether wanting. They are closely allied to the land snails.

in which the eyes are situated at the tips of the tentacles. It includes the common land snails and slugs. See Illust. under Snail.

consisting of one valve only; a mollusk whose shell is composed of a single piece, as the snails and conchs.

Any one of numerous species of small land snails belonging to the genus Vertigo, having an elongated or conical spiral shell and usually teeth in the aperture.

d and blue combined. Violet shell (Zoöl.), any species of Ianthina; -- called also violet snail. See Lanthina. -- Violet wood, a name given to several kinds of hard purplish or reddish woods, as king wood, myall wood, and the wood of the Andira violacea, a tree of Guiana.

A creeping or a crawling animal of any kind or size, as a serpent, caterpillar, snail, or the like. [Archaic] There came a viper out of the heat, and leapt on his hand. When the men of the country saw the worm hang on his hand, they said, This man must needs be a murderer. Tyndale (Acts xxviii. 3, 4). 'T is slander, Wh…