Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Shale

Shale

,
Noun.
[AS.
scealy
,
scalu
. See
Scalme
, and cf.
Shell
.]
1.
A shell or husk; a cod or pod.
“The green shales of a bean.”
Chapman.
2.
[G.
shale
.]
(Geol.)
A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.
Bituminous shale
.
See under
Bituminous
.

Shale

,
Verb.
T.
To take off the shell or coat of; to shell.
Life, in its upper grades, was bursting its shell, or was
shaling
off its husk.
I. Taylor.

Webster 1828 Edition

Shale

SHALE

,
Verb.
T.
To peel. [Not in use. See Shell.]

SHALE

,
Noun.
1. A shell or husk.
2. In natural history, a species of shist or shistous clay; slate clay; generall of a bluish or yellowish gray color, more rarely of a dark blackish or reddish gray, or grayish black, or greenish color. Its fracture is slaty, and in water it molders into powder. It is often found in strata in coal mines, and commonly bears vegetable impressions. It is generally the forerunner of coal.
Bituminous shale is is a subvariety of argillaceous slate, is impregnated with bitumen, and burns with flame.

Definition 2024

shale

shale

See also: shalë

English

Noun

a shale outcrop on Mars

shale ‎(plural shales)

  1. A shell or husk; a cod or pod.
    • Chapman
      the 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”, in New York Times:
      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

Related terms

Usage notes

Before the mid 19th century, the terms shale, slate and schist were not sharply distinguished. Shales that are subject to heat and pressure alter into slate, then schist and finally to gneiss.

Translations

Verb

shale ‎(third-person singular simple present shales, present participle shaling, simple past and past participle shaled)

  1. To take off the shell or coat of.

Synonyms

Translations

Anagrams

Chickasaw

Noun

shale

  1. bus

Etymology

From Middle English schale ‎(“shell, husk; scale”), from Old English sċealu ‎(“shell, husk, pod”), from Proto-Germanic *skalō (compare West Frisian skaal ‎(“dish”), Dutch schaal ‎(“shell”), schalie ‎(“shale”), German Schale ‎(“husk, pod”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelo- ‎(“split, cleaved”) (compare Lithuanian skalà ‎(“splinter”), Old Church Slavonic скала ‎(skala, “rock, stone”), Polish skała ‎(“rock”), Albanian halë ‎(“fish bone, splinter”), Sanskrit कल ‎(kalá, “small part”)), from to split, cleave (compare Hittite [script needed] ‎(iškalla, “to tear apart, slit open”), Lithuanian skélti ‎(“to split”), Ancient Greek σκάλλω ‎(skállō, “to hoe, harrow”)).

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -eɪl

Similar Results