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Sink vs Shell - What's the difference?

sink | shell |

In intransitive terms the difference between sink and shell

is that sink is to decrease in volume, as a river; to subside; to become diminished in volume or in apparent height while shell is to cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk.

As verbs the difference between sink and shell

is that sink is To move or be moved into something.shell is to remove the outer covering or shell of something. See sheller.

As nouns the difference between sink and shell

is that sink is a basin used for holding water for washing while shell is a hard external covering of an animal.

As a proper noun Shell is

a diminutive of the female given name Michelle.

sink

English

Verb

  • To move or be moved into something.
  • #(lb) To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.
  • #:
  • #(lb) To cause a vessel to sink, generally by making it no longer watertight.
  • #(lb) To push (something) into something.
  • #:
  • # To pot; hit a ball into a pocket or hole.
  • #*2008 , Edward Keating, The Joy of Ex: A Novel
  • #*:My sister beats me at pool in public a second time. I claim some dignity back by potting two of my balls before Tammy sinks the black.
  • To diminish or be diminished.
  • # To experience apprehension, disappointment, dread, or momentary depression.
  • #*1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula), Ch.21:
  • #*:I tried, but I could not wake him. This caused me a great fear, and I looked around terrified. Then indeed, my heart sank within me. Beside the bed, as if he had stepped out of the mist, or rather as if the mist had turned into his figure, for it had entirely disappeared, stood a tall, thin man, all in black.
  • #*1915 , , The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel , Little, Brown, and Company, Boston; ch. XIX:
  • #*:Peter's heart sank . "Don't you think it is dreadful?" he asked.
  • # To cause to decline; to depress or degrade.
  • #:
  • #*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • #*:If I have a conscience, let it sink me.
  • #* (1674-1718)
  • #*:Thy cruel and unnatural lust of power / Has sunk thy father more than all his years.
  • #(lb) To demean or lower oneself; to do something below one's status, standards, or morals.
  • #*2013 , Steve Henschel, Niagara This Week , April 24:
  • #*:Who would sink so low as to steal change from veterans?
  • To conceal and appropriate.
  • *(Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
  • *:If sent with ready money to buy anything, and you happen to be out of pocket, sink the money, and take up the goods on account.
  • To keep out of sight; to suppress; to ignore.
  • * (1721-1793)
  • *:a courtly willingness to sink obnoxious truths
  • To reduce or extinguish by payment.
  • :
  • (lb) To be overwhelmed or depressed; to fail in strength.
  • *(rfdate) (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:I think our country sinks beneath the yoke.
  • *(rfdate) John Mortimer (1656?-1736)
  • *:Let not the fire sink or slacken.
  • (lb) To decrease in volume, as a river; to subside; to become diminished in volume or in apparent height.
  • *(rfdate) (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • *:The Alps and Pyreneans sink before him.
  • *
  • *:It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.
  • Usage notes

    * Use of the past participle form sunk'' for the past ''sank is not uncommon, but considered incorrect.

    Synonyms

    * descend, go down * (submerge) dip, dunk, submerge * *

    Derived terms

    * sinker * sink in * sink like a stone * sinking fund * sinking head * sink or swim * sinking pump * sinking ship * countersink

    Noun

    (wikipedia sink) (en noun)
  • A basin used for holding water for washing
  • A drain for carrying off wastewater
  • (geology) A sinkhole
  • A depression in land where water collects, with no visible outlet
  • A heat sink
  • A place that absorbs resources or energy
  • (baseball) The motion of a sinker pitch
  • Jones' has a two-seamer with heavy sink .
  • (computing, programming) An object or callback that captures events; event sink
  • (graph theory) a destination vertex in a transportation network
  • Synonyms

    * (basin) basin, washbasin

    Antonyms

    * (destination vertex) source

    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