shale

shale is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 2 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.Etym: [G. shale.] (Geol.) A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure. Bituminous shale. See under Bituminous.
  2. 2.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.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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