Shale /(?)/

Shale

n.
  1. A shell or husk; a cod or pod.
  2. A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure. (Geol.)

Phrases & Compounds

Bituminous shale
See under Bituminous.

Shale

v. t.
  1. 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.