shelling

Pluralshellings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of attacking a place with heavy fire from large guns.

   Like a storm of explosions raining down on a town.

   The shelling lasted through the night and left the village in ruins.

   Families fled the city to escape the constant shelling.

   Similarbombardment, barrage, cannonade, pounding

   Note
2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of taking the hard outer cover off nuts, peas, or seeds.

   Like peeling the skin off an orange before you eat it.

   The shelling of the peas took the whole afternoon.

   He didn't mind the shelling of walnuts on quiet evenings.

   Similarshucking, husking

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of shell. Use this form for an action happening right now.

   The troops are shelling the enemy positions across the river.

   They kept shelling peas while the radio played in the kitchen.

   Note
4. 4
   noununcountable

   Grain that has had its rough outer layer taken off.

   Like rice after the rough brown layer has been rubbed off.

   The farmer stored the shelling in dry barrels for the winter.

   They ground the shelling into a coarse flour.

   Similargroats

5. 5
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Thin, uneven cracks that form on the surface of plaster or mortar.

   Like the small cracks in dried mud on a riverbed.

   The old wall showed signs of shelling near the window frame.

   Painters fixed the shelling before adding a fresh coat.

   Similarcrazing, cracking

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A way of ordering the flat faces of a shape so each new face joins the earlier ones neatly.

   Like stacking building blocks one by one, each new block touching the pile.

   The class worked out a shelling for the surface of a cube.

   A good shelling adds each new face onto the ones already placed.

   Note

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