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shale

1. A shell or husk; a cod or pod. The green shales of a bean.

2. [G. Shale.

(Science: geology) A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure. Bituminous shale. See Bituminous.

Origin: AS. Scealy, scalu. See Scalme, and cf. Shell.