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Bell vs Shell - What's the difference?

bell | shell |

As an adjective bell

is beautiful.

As a proper noun shell is

a diminutive of the female given name michelle .

bell

English

(wikipedia bell)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A percussive instrument made of metal or other hard material, typically but not always in the shape of an inverted cup with a flared rim, which resonates when struck.
  • * 1848 , Edgar Allan Poe, "(The Bells)"
  • HEAR the sledges with the bells
    Silver bells !
    What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
  • The sounding of a bell as a signal.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=December 18 , author=Ben Dirs , title=Carl Froch outclassed by dazzling Andre Ward , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Referee Steve Smoger was an almost invisible presence in the ring as both men went at it, although he did have a word with Froch when he landed with a shot after the bell at the end of the eighth.}}
  • (chiefly, British, informal) A telephone call.
  • I’ll give you a bell later.
  • A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
  • (music) The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
  • (nautical) Any of a series of strokes on a bell (or similar), struck every half hour to indicate the time (within a four hour watch)
  • The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
  • (computing) A device control code that produces a beep (or rings a small electromechanical bell on older teleprinters etc.).
  • Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
  • * Shakespeare
  • In a cowslip's bell I lie.
  • (architecture) The part of the capital of a column included between the abacus and neck molding; also used for the naked core of nearly cylindrical shape, assumed to exist within the leafage of a capital.
  • Derived terms
    * * bell curve * bellbottoms * bellflower * bell-ringer * bell tower * * bicycle bell * bluebell * church bell * doorbell * handbell * harebell * ring someone's bell * saved by the bell * sound as a bell * with bells on
    See also
    * alarm * buzz * buzzer * carillon * chime * clapper * curfew * dinger * ding-dong * gong * peal * ringer * siren * tintinnabulum * tocsin * toll * vesper

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To attach a bell to.
  • Who will bell the cat?
  • To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
  • to bell a tube
  • (slang) To telephone.
  • * 2006 , Dominic Lavin, Last Seen in Bangkok
  • "Vinny, you tosser, it's Keith. I thought you were back today. I'm in town. Bell us on the mobile.''
  • To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.
  • Hops bell .

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m). Cognate with (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To bellow or roar.
  • * 1774 , Oliver Goldsmith, A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature :
  • This animal is said to harbour'' in the place where he resides. When he cries, he is said to ''bell'' ; the print of his hoof is called the ''slot''; his tail is called the ''single''; his excrement the ''fumet''; his horns are called his ''head [...].
  • * (rfdate) Rudyard Kipling
  • As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled / Once, twice and again!
  • * 1955 , William Golding, The Inheritors , Faber and Faber 2005, page 128:
  • Then, incredibly, a rutting stag belled by the trunks.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.
  • shell

    English

    (wikipedia shell)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A hard external covering of an animal.
  • # The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates.
  • In some mollusks, as the cuttlefish, the shell is concealed by the animal's outer mantle and is considered internal.
  • Genuine mother of pearl buttons are made from sea shells .
  • # (by extension) Any mollusk having such a covering.
  • # (entomology) The exoskeleton or wing covers of certain insects.
  • # The conjoined scutes that comprise the "shell" (carapace) of a tortoise or turtle.
  • # The overlapping hard plates comprising the armor covering the armadillo's body.
  • The hard calcareous covering of a bird egg.
  • The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
  • # The covering, or outside part, of a nut.
  • The black walnut and the hickory nut, both of the same ''Genus as the pecan, have much thicker and harder shells than the pecan.
  • # A pod containing the seeds of certain plants, such as the legume Phaseolus vulgaris .
  • # (in the plural) Husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is sometimes used as a substitute or adulterant for cocoa and its products such as chocolate.
  • The accreted mineral formed around a hollow geode.
  • The casing of a self-contained single-unit artillery projectile.
  • A hollow usually spherical or cylindrical projectile fired from a siege mortar or a smoothbore cannon. It contains an explosive substance designed to be ignited by a fuse or by percussion at the target site so that it will burst and scattered at high velocity its contents and fragments. Formerly called a bomb.
  • The cartridge of a breechloading firearm; a load; a bullet; a round.
  • Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in, as the shell of a house.
  • A garment, usually worn by women, such as a shirt, blouse, or top, with short sleeves or no sleeves, that often fastens in the rear.
  • A coarse or flimsy coffin; a thin interior coffin enclosed within a more substantial one.
  • (Knight)
  • (music) A string instrument, as a lyre, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell.
  • The first lyre may have been made by drawing strings over the underside of a tortoise shell.
  • * Dryden
  • when Jubal struck the chorded shell
  • (music) The body of a drum; the often wooden, often cylindrical acoustic chamber, with or without rims added for tuning and for attaching the drum head.
  • An engraved copper roller used in print works.
  • (nautical) The watertight outer covering of the hull of a vessel, often made with planking or metal plating.
  • (nautical, rigging) The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve.
  • (nautical) A light boat the frame of which is covered with thin wood, impermeable fabric, or water-proofed paper; a racing shell or dragon boat.
  • (computing) An operating system software user interface, whose primary purpose is to launch other programs and control their interactions; the user's command interpreter.
  • The name shell originates from it being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the internals of the operating system.
    The name "Bash" is an acronym which stands for "Bourne-again shell", itself a pun on the name of the "Bourne shell", an earlier Unix shell designed by Stephen Bourne, and the Christian concept of being "born again".
  • (chemistry) A set of atomic orbitals that have the same principal quantum number.
  • An emaciated person.
  • He's lost so much weight from illness; he's a shell of his former self.
  • A psychological barrier to social interaction.
  • Even after months of therapy he's still in his shell .
  • (business) A legal entity that has no operations.
  • A shell corporation was formed to acquire the old factory.

    Derived terms

    * clamshell * clean shell * come out of one’s shell * eggshell * seashell * shellfish * shell script * shell suit * tortoiseshell

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To remove the outer covering or shell of something. See sheller.
  • To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery.
  • (informal) To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out ).
  • To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
  • To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk.
  • Nuts shell in falling.
    Wheat or rye shells in reaping.
  • (computing) To switch to a shell or command line.
  • * 1993 , Robin Nixon, The PC Companion (page 115)
  • Automenu is a good program to try, and offers a fair amount of protection - but, unfortunately, it's one of those systems that allow users to shell to DOS.

    Derived terms

    * shell out

    Anagrams

    * hells