hull
/hʌl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/hʊl/
hull noun: the outer covering of a fruit or seed.
Noun (1)
hull (plural hulls)
Verb (1)
hull (third-person singular simple present hulls, present participle hulling, simple past and past participle hulled)
- To remove the outer covering of a fruit or seed.
- She sat on the back porch hulling peanuts.
Noun (2)
hull (plural hulls)
- The body or frame of a vessel, such as a ship or plane.
- VVhen you haue berthed or brought her [the ship] vp to the planks, vvhich are thoſe thicke timbers vvhich goeth fore and aft on each ſide, vvhereon doth lie the beames of the firſt Orlop, vvhich is the firſt floore to ſupport the plankes doth couer the Hovvle, thoſe are great croſſe timbers, that...1627, Iohn Smith [i.e., John Smith], “How to Build a Ship with the Definitions of All the Principall Names of Euery Part of her Principall Timbers, also How They are Fixed One to Another, and the...
- Deep in their hulls our deadly bullets light, / And through the yielding planks a passage find.1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, stanza 60
- Synonyms:
- fuselage
- The smallest set that possesses a particular property (such as convexity) and contains every point of A; slightly more formally, the intersection of all sets which possess the specified property and of which A is a subset.
- The orthogonal convex hull of an orthogonal polygon is the smallest orthogonally convex polygon that encloses the original polygon.
- holomorphically convex hull; affine hull; injective hull
- Synonyms:
- affine hull, affine span, span
Verb (2)
hull (third-person singular simple present hulls, present participle hulling, simple past and past participle hulled)
- To drift; to be carried by the impetus of wind or water on the ship's hull alone, with sails furled.
- We goe not, but we are carried: as things that flote, now gliding gently, now hulling violently, according as the water is, either stormy or calme.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 1, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
- […] Thus hulling in
The wild sea of my conscience, I did steer
Toward this remedy, whereupon we are
Now present here together:1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
- To hit (a ship) in the hull with cannon fire etc.
- During this action, we had not a man killed or wounded, although the enemy often hulled us, and once, in particular, a shot coming into one of our ports, dismounted one of our guns between decks […]1774, George Shelvocke, “The Voyage of Captain Shelvock Round the World”, in David Henry, editor, An Historical Account of All the Voyages Round the World, Performed by English Navigators, volume 2...
Proper noun capitalized: Hull
Hull (countable and uncountable, plural Hulls)
- A river in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, which flows into the Humber.
- The common name of Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
- Hull, Quebec: The central business district and oldest neighborhood of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada.
- An unincorporated community in DeSoto County, Florida.
- A city in Madison County, Georgia.
- A village in Pike County, Illinois.
- A city in Sioux County, Iowa.
- A coastal town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts.
- An unincorporated community in Emmons County, North Dakota.
- An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Liberty County, Texas.
- An unincorporated community in McDowell County, West Virginia.
- A town in Marathon County, Wisconsin.
- A town in Portage County, Wisconsin.
- A surname.
hull meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
hull in Hindi
- पतवार
hull in Tamil
- உமி, உமி நீக்கு, மேலோடு, விதை மேலோடு, வானூர்தி, கப்பல் ஆகியவற்றின் வெளிச்சுவர்
hull in Urdu
- بھوسی, چھلکا, پوست, بھوسی نکالنا, چھلکا اتار لینا
hull in Bengali
- জাহাজের কাঠাম, তুষ বহিরাবরণ
More languagesFewer languages
- hull in Telugu
- పొట్టు, హుల్, హల్
- hull in Malayalam
- കപ്പലുടൽ, കപ്പലിൻറെ പള്ള
- hull in Kannada
- ಹಡಗಿನ ಒಡಲು, ಸಿಪ್ಪೆ, ಹೊಟ್ಟು, ಗೆರಟೆ
- hull in Nepali
- हुल
- hull in Malay
- sekam, lenggai, menguliti, mengopek
- hull in Persian
- نیام niyâm
Examples of hull in a sentence
- The bullets just bounced off the steel plate on its hull.
- A torrent of green and white water broke over the hull of the sail-boat.
- The steel hulls of ice-breakers are much thicker than those of standard vessels.
Synonyms of hull
Forms of hull
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | hulls |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | hulls |
| present participle | hulling |
| past participle | hulled |
| past | hulled |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Hulls |
Origin of hull
From Middle English hul, hulle, holle (“seed covering, hull of a ship”), from Old English hulu (“seed covering”), from Proto-Germanic *hul-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide”); or possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kal- (“hard”). Compare Dutch hul (“hood”), German Hülle (“cover, wrap”), Hülse (“hull”); also Old Irish calad, calath (“hard”), Latin callus, callum (“rough skin”), Old Church Slavonic калити (kaliti, “to cool, harden”). For the sense development, compare French coque (“nutshell; ship's hull”), Ancient Greek φάσηλος (phásēlos, “bean pod; yacht”).
From Middle English holle, hoole (“hull, hold of a ship, ship”), of uncertain origin. Possibly a variant and special use of Etymology 1 above, conformed to hull. Alternatively, a variant of Middle English hole, hoole, holle (“hiding place, lair, den, shelter, compartment”, literally “hole, hollow”), related to Middle Dutch and Dutch hol (“hole, ship's cargo hold”). More at hole.
The town in England is Inherited from Middle English Hull, Hul, Hulle, traditionally derived from Proto-Brythonic *hʉl, from Proto-Celtic *soulos, from Proto-Indo-European *sew- (“to press”); Breeze instead suggests derivation from hula, plural of hulu (“hut”). Chaucer's Hulle (for expected *Hul, *Hule) is presumably a hypercorrect Southern form. The surname is either from the English town or Middle English hulle, western variant of hylle (“hill”); many other place names are ultimately from the surname.
Words formed from hull
- Bishop's Hull
- Kingston upon Hull
- Ottawa-Hull:
- Sutton-on-Hull
- bean-hull
- hully
- soyhull
- rice hull
- affine hull
- ahull
- convex hull
- dehull
- hull breach
- hull-down
- hulled
- hulless
- hull-less
- hull loss
- hull operator
- hull speed
- hull splash
- hull-up
- invective hull
- monohull
- multihull
- pressure hull
- tank hull
- turtle hull
- twinhull
Phrases with hull
Words that rhyme with hull
4 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about hull
- What does hull mean?
- Hull means the outer covering of a fruit or seed.
- What is hull in Hindi?
- Hull in Hindi is पतवार. See Hull meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is hull?
- Hull can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce hull?
- Hull is pronounced /hʌl/.
- What is the plural of hull?
- The plural of hull is hulls.
Words near hull in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hull (page history and authors); Hull (page history and authors); hull (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hull (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hull (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hull (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hull (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hull (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hull (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hull (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hull.wav.
Cite this entry: “hull.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hull. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.