Word.ws English Dictionary

hardshell

hardshell adjective: having a tough outer shell.

Adjective

hardshell (comparative more hardshell, superlative most hardshell)

  1. Having a tough outer shell.
    • His favorite seafood is hardshell crabs.
    • a hardshell guitar case
  2. (figuratively) Rigid or uncompromising in principles, especially in religion or politics.
    • Though it was a commonly held opinion, now only hardshell Baptists oppose dancing.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:hardshell.

Forms of hardshell

comparativemore hardshell
superlativemost hardshell
alternative formhard-shell

Origin of hardshell

From hard + shell.

Questions about hardshell

What does hardshell mean?
Hardshell means having a tough outer shell.
What part of speech is hardshell?
Hardshell is an adjective.

Words near hardshell in the dictionary

  1. hardscaped
  2. hardscapes
  3. hardscaping
  4. hardscrabble
  5. hardset
  6. hardshell
  7. hardship
  8. hardship post
  9. hardship posts
  10. hardshipped
  11. hardshipping

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hardshell (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “hardshell.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hardshell. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.