Shale

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪl

Origin

Middle English schale 'shell, husk; scale', from Old English scealu 'shell, husk, pod', from Proto-Germanic *skalō (compare West Frisian skaal 'dish', Dutch schaal 'shell', German Schale 'husk, pod'), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelo- 'split, cleaved' (compare Lithuanian skalà 'splinter', Old Church Slavonic skala 'rock, stone', Polish skała 'rock', Albanian halë 'fish bone, splinter', Sanskrit kalá 'small part'), from *(s)kel- 'to split, cleave' (compare Hittite iškalla 'to tear apart, slit open', Lithuanian skélti 'to split', Ancient Greek skállein 'to hoe, harrow').

Full definition of shale

Noun

1. A shell or husk; a cod or pod.
• Chapmanthe green shales of a bean
2. (geology) A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.
• 2007, March 23, Patricia Leigh Brown, The Window Box Gets Some Tough Competition, As on all large green roofs, the soil is not dirt exactly but a gravel-like growing medium of granulated pumice, shales, clays and other minerals.

Derived terms

• shaley
• shalionaire
• shaly

Verb

1. To take off the shell or coat of.

Synonyms

• shell

Anagrams

• hales
• halse
• heals
• leash
• Sahel
• Selah