shale

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“
There are already working gas wells in the State - where the shale is the thickest, and a mile or more closer to the surface than in the area of the watershed.

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Definitions (67)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun A fissile rock composed of layers of claylike, fine-grained sediments.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (63)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The same can be said of oil shale, which is an incredibly water - and energy-intense method of converting hydrocarbons into a synthetic oil. —  MichiganLiberal
  • There are already working gas wells in the State - where the shale is the thickest, and a mile or more closer to the surface than in the area of the watershed. —  Home | The New York Observer
  • Availability of water to produce oil shale is also an issue. —  Earthjustice Press Releases
  • And it's very clear, given the price of $4 a gallon gas, that people want to find out. 'but for its many critics, oil shale is a particularly nasty way of dealing with the energy crisis. —  Organic Consumers Association News Headlines
  • To get hydrocarbons out of the shale, the sedimentary rocks must be heated to temperatures of 900 degrees by injecting steam. —  Organic Consumers Association News Headlines
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Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Probably from Middle English, shell, from Old English scealu; see skel-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Early modern English also shaile; from MB. shale, schale, assibilated form of scale, from Anglo-Saxon sceale, a shell, husk, rind, scale: see scale. Cf. shale.
  2. English dial. also, Sheal, sheel; from Middle English schalen, assibilated form of scalen, scale, shell: see scale, and cf. shell, v.
  3. from German schale, a scale, shell, husk, a slice, a thin layer (schulen-gebirge, a mountain formed of thin strata), = English scale, shale: see scale, shale.
 

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/ʃeɪl/
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