Hypertext Webster Gateway: "shale"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
2. [G. shale.] (Geol.) A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a
thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.
{Bituminous shale}. See under {Bituminous}.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Shale \Shale\, v. t.
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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
shale
n : a sedimentary rock formed by the deposition of successive
layers of clay
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