Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The outer membranous or green envelope of some fruits or seeds, as that of a walnut or an ear of corn.
  • noun A shell or outer covering, especially when considered worthless.
  • noun A framework serving as a support.
  • transitive verb To remove the husk from.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The greater dogfish, Scylliorhinus canicula.
  • To strip off the external integument or covering of.
  • To open or shuck, as oysters.
  • Dry; parched.
  • noun Huskiness.
  • noun A company of hares.
  • noun The verminous bronchitis of cattle, found particularly in calves, and caused by roundworms belonging to the species Metastrongylus micrurus.
  • noun Corn-meal bran.
  • noun A cup-shaped form composed of short leaves, common in Greek, Roman, and Renaissance decoration, from which rinceaux and other motives usually start. There are about 84 of these starting-points.
  • noun The external covering of certain fruits or seeds of plants; the glume, epicarp, rind, or hull; in the United States, specifically, the outer covering of an ear of maize or Indian corn.
  • noun Something resembling a husk, or serving the purpose of husks, as the membranous covering of an insect, or (sometimes) the shells of oysters.
  • noun Figuratively, the outer covering of anything; that which incloses or conceals the reality or the essential part; hence, in the plural, refuse; waste.
  • noun The frame which supports a run of millstones.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The external covering or envelope of certain fruits or seeds; glume; hull; rind; in the United States, especially applied to the covering of the ears of maize.
  • noun The supporting frame of a run of millstones.
  • noun (Bot.) the pods of the carob tree. See Carob.
  • transitive verb To strip off the external covering or envelope of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To say huskily, to utter in a husky voice.
  • noun The dry, leafy or stringy exterior of certain vegetables or fruits, which must be removed before eating the meat inside
  • noun Any form of useless, dried-up, and subsequently worthless exterior of something
  • verb transitive To remove husks from.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds
  • noun outer membranous covering of some fruits or seeds
  • verb remove the husks from

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, probably diminutive of hus, house, Middle Dutch hūskijn, little house, core of an apple; see house.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Partly imitative, partly from Etymology 1, above, influenced by husky.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English huske ("husk"), from Old English *husuc, *hosuc ("little covering, sheath"), diminutive of hosu ("pod, shell, husk"), from Proto-Germanic *husōn, *hausaz (“covering, shell, leggings”), from Proto-Indo-European *kawəs- / kawes- (“cover”). More at hose, -ock.

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