Word.ws English Dictionary

shelled

/ʃɛld/

shelled is the simple past and past participle of shell.

Adjective

shelled (not comparable)

  1. (in-compounds, often) Having a shell; testaceous.
    • the shelled slug of species Testacella haliotidea
  2. Having had the shell removed.
    • shelled peas
    Synonyms:
    deshelled
  3. (slang) Unable to keep up in a race, having used up one's reserves of energy.

Meaning of shell

Verb

shell (third-person singular simple present shells, present participle shelling, simple past and past participle shelled)

  1. To remove the outer covering or shell of something.
  2. To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery.
    • The guns shelled the enemy trenches.
  3. (informal) To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out).
  4. (intransitive) To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
  5. (intransitive) To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk.
    • Nuts shell in falling.
  6. (intransitive) To switch to a shell or command line.
    • 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.1993, Robin Nixon, The PC Companion, page 115

See all 50 meanings of shell

Synonyms of shelled

Antonyms

Words formed from shelled

Phrases with shelled

Questions about shelled

What does shelled mean?
Shelled means having a shell; testaceous.
What is shelled the simple past and past participle of?
Shelled is the simple past and past participle of shell.
What part of speech is shelled?
Shelled is an adjective.
How do you pronounce shelled?
Shelled is pronounced /ʃɛld/.

Words near shelled in the dictionary

  1. shellcrackers
  2. shelldrake
  3. shelldrakes
  4. shellduck
  5. shellducks
  6. shelled
  7. shelled out
  8. Shelleian
  9. Shellenbarger
  10. Shellenbargers
  11. Shellenberger

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shelled (page history and authors); shell (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-shelled.ogg.

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