Shale (?), n. [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.

 

© Webster 1913.


Shale, v. 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 1913.

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