shell out

S s

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- UK Pronunciation
- UK IPA
- [shel out]
- /ʃɛl aʊt/
- /ʃel ˈaʊt/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [shel out]
- /ʃɛl aʊt/

Definitions of shell out words

noun shell out a hard outer covering of an animal, as the hard case of a mollusk, or either half of the case of a bivalve mollusk. 1
noun shell out any of various objects resembling such a covering, as in shape or in being more or less concave or hollow. 1
noun shell out the material constituting any of various coverings of this kind. 1
noun shell out the hard exterior of an egg. 1
noun shell out the usually hard, outer covering of a seed, fruit, or the like, as the hard outside portion of a nut, the pod of peas, etc. 1
noun shell out a hard, protecting or enclosing case or cover. 1

See all 39 definitions of shell out

Information block about the term

Origin of shell out

First appearance:

before 900

One of the 4% oldest English words

before 900; (noun) Middle English; Old English scell (north), sciell; cognate with Dutch schil peel, skin, rink, Old Norse skel shell, Gothic skalja tile; (v.) derivative of the noun; cf. shale

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Shell out

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Shell out

shell out popularity

A common word. It’s meaning is known to most children of preschool age. About 99% of English native speakers know the meaning and use the word.

Most Europeans know this English word. The frequency of it’s usage is somewhere between "mom" and "screwdriver".

shell out usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for shell out

verb shell out

allot — If something is allotted to someone, it is given to them as their share.
ante up — If you ante up an amount of money, you pay your share, sometimes unwillingly.
assign — If you assign a piece of work to someone, you give them the work to do.
award — An award is a prize or certificate that a person is given for doing something well.
cast away — to throw or hurl; fling: The gambler cast the dice.

All 29 Synonyms of shell out