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.