snail-shell
[snail n.1]
1. The shell or house of a snail; = cochlea 3.
| 1530 Palsgr. 272/1 Snayle or snayle shell, lymacon. 1578 T. N. tr. Conq. W. India 311 They entred..with the sound of drummes, snaile-shelles and other instrumentes of Musicke. 1611 Cotgr., Limace,..any thing that winds or turnes like a Snaile-shell. 1676 Phil. Trans. XI. 594 Turn'd helically like a Snail-shell. 1713 Petiver Aquat. Anim. Amboinæ Tab. iv, Valvata,..Small waved Snail-shell. 1775 Ash, Cochlea,..a genus of shell fish, a snail-shell. 1822 J. Parkinson Outl. Oryctol. 248 The exterior characters of the snail-shells of the present day. 1891 Science-Gossip XXVII. 18/1 The lower step..bore witness to the frequent visits of the thrushes, for it was covered with broken snail⁓shells. |
b. attrib., as snail-shell pattern; snail-shell medick, (a) heart-clover; (b) snail plant.
| 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 660 Medicago arabica,..Snailshell Medick. 1855 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. II. 92 The Snail-shell Medick of the South of Europe (Medicago scutellata). 1898 Daily News 17 Sept. 6/2 Richly braided in a snail-shell pattern. |
† 2. = cochlea 2. Obs.—1
| 1683 Phil. Trans. XIII. 261 The Small-bones,..the Snail⁓shell,..have the same figure and..bulk in Infants which they have in men. |