shell v.
1. to remove some or all of one’s clothes, e.g. preparatory to a fight.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Bk of Sports 158: On shelling, Manuel appeared in good condition. | |
| (con. 1831) Fights for the Championship 117: On the later being completely unshelled, he looked in admirable condiction. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 19 Dec. 1/1: That capable horseman P. Regan [...] was ordered to shell off the colors for fear the A.J.C. would send him to jail. |
2. (W.I.) to drive fast [Shell Motor Oil].
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Notes for Gloss. of Barbadian Dial. 103: He went down the road shelling. |
3. (N.Z. drugs) to remove painkilling drugs from their capsule before making home-produced narcotics.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Eve. Post (Wellington) 5 Apr. 19: It takes about two hours to complete a bake excluding ‘shelling time’. (Taking pills out of packets) [DNZE]. |
4. see shell out
SE in slang uses
In phrases
1. to hand over, usu. money.
 | Report from the Cttee of Secrecy, of the House of Commons in Ireland App. 28 41: If you’ll not give the government contractors or commissioners your goods without hard cash, they must shell out the gold. | |
| Moral Tales 156: One of you, it's plain, must shell out your corianders; but as you can't settle which, we must put you to your oath. | |
| Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 27: Who knows but, if coax’d, he may shell out the shiners? | |
| Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 15: I am sure, my boy, he will shell out six hundred francs as easily as a penny. | |
| Satirist (London) 3 July 104/3: It was no sooner known that one Jew had presented Charles Pearson, the attorney, with a piece of plate, than another [...] asked if he would ‘shell.’ [...] a bargain was soon struck. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Col. Crockett’s Tour to North and Down East 163: Witness the testimony of Major Noah, in New York, and others, who prove that the office-holders had to shell out a part of their salary, to support Jacksonism. | |
| Jorrocks Jaunts (1874) 98: Shell out, old ’un. | |
| Clockmaker III 152: Why, says he, shell out, and plank down a pile of dollars. | |
| New Sprees of London 3: [S]o flare up and speal your tin—shell out like a brick—spend the ochre—crall the Crowns. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 27 Dec. 1/5: [...] picked up by the traps for getting malty and have the next morning to shell out to the beak five or ten of the queen’s images. | |
| Jamestown Journal 26 Feb. 3/2: The County has two treasurers, [...] each calling on the Collectors of taxes to shell over [DA]. | |
| G’hals of N.Y. 134: It’ll jes’ be when you shell back the mopuses that yer emptied my pockets of! [ibid.] 140: He shelled out the desired amount. | |
| Knickerbocker (N.Y.) XLIX 34: I reckoned I could make him shell over [DA]. | |
| Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 101: One has to shell out for it all directly one comes back, and that’s a bore. | |
| Hard Cash II 132: So now shell out without more words, or I’ll blow the gaff. | |
| ‘Breitmann’s Last Party’ in Hans Breitmann as an Uhlan 42: Ho! fetch me de diamonds! / Ho ! shell out de rings! / Mit all in de castle / Of dat sort of dings. | |
| Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 7 Jan. 1/7: A young gentleman gets into ‘little difficulties,’ [...] He fears he will have to [...] ’ ‘make himself scarce,’ unless the governor ‘shells out’. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Knocknagow 95: ‘He won’t let me take her wudout the money. So shell out,’ he added. | |
| Tammany Farmer (Covington, LA) 10 Sept. 1/3: See here, Dickey, old fellow, shell out! | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Jan. 13/4: At a recent monthly meeting of the Bathurst Board, the President observed that his attention had been frequently drawn to the large amount annually shelled out for grog. | |
| Sporting Times 24 Apr. 1/5: We trust all good Pink ’Uns will continue to shell out the red ’uns for this deserving case. | |
| Dead Bird (Sydney) 21 Sept. 4/1: The pool was poor. The folks round there were disinclined to shell. | |
| Sporting Times 15 Feb. 1/5: Shell out, stump up, ready, rhino, oof. | |
| Tramping with Tramps 338: ’N’ ’fore they know it they’re shellin’ out. Quarters ev’ry time. | |
| Marvel 29 Oct. 8: Be a little handier in shelling out your money. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Mar. 1/1: Perth’s champion whisky-shifting solicitor has a horror of shelling out the shekels. | |
| ‘The Girl and the Graft’ in Strictly Business (1915) 91: A man will shell out his dust to another man free and easy and gratis. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 31 Dec. 3/6: Bookies, Sporting Coves, and others / Allers shells out with both hands. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Feb. 16/3: It was a [...] liftman who induced him to shell out the 3s [for the lottery ticket]. | |
| Ulysses 272: Got up to kill: on eighteen bob a week. Fellows shell out the dibs. | |
| ‘The Hold up Rag’ in Bum Bandit [cartoon lyrics] Shell out, shell out! / Don’t you dare to yell out, / Drop your pearls and diamonds in the bag. | |
| On Broadway [synd. col.] 23 Nov. n.p.: ‘Sherm I need five C’s’ . . . ‘Sure,’ said Sherman, shelling off the five hundred. . . . Her rich friend couldn’t believe such an easy touch existed. | |
| Knock on Any Door 324: This is a stick-up. Shell out! | |
| Alcoholics (1993) 67: Doc can get you guys [...] to shell out fifty bucks a day. | |
| House For Mr Biswas 173: You mean shell out. All right. Pounds, shillings and pence, dollars and cents. | |
| (con. 1950s) Whoreson 37: Shell out, man; ain’t you got no faith in me? | |
| Nova Apr. 36: It’s a lot of money but the thought of having shelled it out does keep you going. | |
| Moses Ascending 4: Every Friday-please-God they shell over their respective rents. | |
| Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 129: It looked a dead-set certainty that they were going to have to shell out motzas after Shannon strolled in. | |
| Source Oct. 206: Leeches and bloodsuckers shelled out pennies to make millions. | |
| Indep. Rev. 22 Jan. 8: Why do executives keep shelling out more and more money [...] ? | |
| Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 38: I’d say they shelled out a lot more for their furniture than my old pair. | |
| Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] Charles shells out to anyone who comes along. Schools, art gallery, the Salvos, the RSL, you name it. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Sun. Times (S.Afr.) Mag. 27 Jan. 8: Be prepared to shell out more bucks than you expected. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 42: Then he had to shell out close to five dollars to fill his gas tank. | |
| Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] I could lose a handful of lures and not have to shell out a month’s wages to get back in the water. | |
| California Bear 14: ‘I hate the idea of you shelling out for two rooms down here by the beach’. |
2. (US) to leave, to depart.
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 29 Oct. 7/3: ‘I’ll shell out fur home and leave you to pay the hotel bill’. | |
| ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 368: shell out, v. To run away precipitously, leave hastily. ‘We had to shell out from that place.’. | |
| Thieves Like Us (1999) 21: We’d like to shell out of here about eight o’clock. |
3. to take an opponent’s money when playing cards or dice.
| Le Slang. |
4. to do what is required or demanded.
| What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 96: That was the way the pressure went. Nobody was ever called into an excutive office and told to shell out or get out. | |
| Sexus (1969) 327: He was sore as a pup about it but I had him in a corner and there was nothing to do but shell out. |