Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A crab's carapace.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word crab-shell.
Examples
-
In those days there would be as many as a billion -- a crab-shell, please -- as many as that crab-shell in one man's body.
Page 4 2010
-
Patagonia says its crab-shell treatment is good for 50 washes.
-
No sooner had he said this than he shook himself, and immediately became a handsome youth, but the next morning he was forced to creep back again into his crab-shell.
-
The little robot and the crab-shell are the only other things in the room.
Ilium Simmons, Dan 1981
-
The first coach appeared in the streets of London in Elizabeth's time and the sight of it "put both horse and man into amazement; some said it was a great crab-shell brought out of China; and some imagined it to be one of the Pagan temples, in which the Cannibals adored the divell."
A History of English Prose Fiction Bayard Tuckerman
-
Shoemaking machinery not having attained the present development which pastes imitation-leather uppers upon paper soles, the soldiers of the first Union Army had to trudge in the boots made with wooden pegs to hold the portions together; in wet weather the pegs swelled and held tolerably, but in dryness the assimilation failed and the upper crust yawned off the base like a crab-shell divided.
The Lincoln Story Book Henry Llewellyn Williams
-
In those days there would be as many as a billion — a crab-shell, please — as many as that crab-shell in one man's body.
The Scarlet Plague 1912
-
Shoemaking machinery not having attained the present development which pastes imitation-leather uppers upon paper soles, the soldiers of the first Union Army had to trudge in the boots made with wooden pegs to hold the portions together; in wet weather the pegs swelled and held tolerably, but in dryness the assimilation failed and the upper crust yawned off the base like a crab-shell divided.
The Lincoln Story Book Williams, Henry L 1907
-
Her mother was still more angry because she had not been told sooner, ran into her daughter's room where the crab-shell was still lying, took it up and threw it into the fire.
The Yellow Fairy Book Andrew Lang 1900
-
In those days there would be as many as a billion -- a crab-shell, please -- as many as that crab-shell in one man's body.
The Scarlet Plague Jack London 1896
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.