shell

The Sailor's Word-Book

In artillery, a hollow iron shot containing explosive materials, whether spherical, elongated, eccentric, &c., and destined to burst at the required instant by the action of its fuse (which see).


♦ Common shells are filled with powder only, those fired from mortars being spherical, and having a thickness of about one-sixth of their diameter. (See also segment-shell and shrapnel shell.) Also, the hard calcareous external covering of the mollusca, crustacea, and echinoderms.

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