Shale

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Shale \Shale\, v. t.
     To take off the shell or coat of; to shell.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Life, in its upper grades, was bursting its shell, or
           was shaling off its husk.                --I. Taylor.


     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Shale \Shale\, n. [AS. scealy, scalu. See {Scalme}, and cf.
     {Shell}.]
     1. A shell or husk; a cod or pod. "The green shales of a
        bean." --Chapman.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. [G. shale.] (Geol.) A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a
        thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Bituminous shale}. See under {Bituminous}.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  shale
       n : a sedimentary rock formed by the deposition of successive
           layers of clay