Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Shale
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.
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
shale (plural shales)
- A shell or husk; a cod or pod.
- Chapman
- the green shales of a bean
- Chapman
- (geology) A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.
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
sedimentary rock
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Verb
shale (third-person singular simple present shales, present participle shaling, simple past and past participle shaled)
- To take off the shell or coat of.
Synonyms
Translations
to take off the shell, husk, cod, pod