Shale
Shale , noun
[Anglo-Saxon scealy, scalu. See Scalme, and compare Shell.]
1.
A shell or husk; a cod or pod.
The green shales of a bean.
2.
(Geology) A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.
Collocations (1)
Bituminous shale , See under Bituminous.
Shale , transitive verb
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.