# shelling

Pronunciation: US say "SHEL-ing" /ˈʃɛlɪŋ/; UK

## Noun

1. A sustained attack on a target using artillery fire.
   - Simple: The act of attacking a place with heavy fire from large guns.
   - _Heavy shelling forced the defenders to abandon the forward trenches._
   - _After hours of shelling, the bridge had collapsed into the river._
2. The process of removing the outer shell or pod from nuts, peas, and similar foods.
   - Simple: The act of taking the hard outer cover off nuts, peas, or seeds.
   - _The shelling of fresh beans is far easier when the pods are still soft._
   - _Volunteers shared the shelling of chestnuts before the festival meal._
4. The grain remaining once its husks have been taken off.
   - Simple: Grain that has had its rough outer layer taken off.
   - _The mill sold sacks of shelling to bakers in the surrounding towns._
   - _A handful of shelling went into the pot to thicken the broth._
5. A pattern of shallow, irregular cracks in the surface of a coating such as plaster or mortar.
   - Simple: Thin, uneven cracks that form on the surface of plaster or mortar.
   - _Inspectors noted shelling across the ceiling plaster once the leak had dried._
   - _The mortar developed shelling within months of the repair._
6. An ordering of the facets of a boundary complex in which each facet after the first meets the union of the earlier facets in a ball or a sphere.
   - Simple: A way of ordering the flat faces of a shape so each new face joins the earlier ones neatly.
   - _The polytope admits a shelling, so its boundary complex behaves predictably._
   - _Topologists proved that every convex polytope has a shelling of its facets._

## Verb

3. Present participle of shell. — present participle and gerund of shell
   - Simple: Present participle of shell. Use this form for an action happening right now.
   - _Artillery units were shelling the ridge before the infantry advanced._
   - _She spent the morning shelling beans on the porch._

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/shelling (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).