ˈhardshell, ˈhard-shell, a. and n.
A. adj.
1. U.S. Having a hard shell: applied to some crustaceans and molluscs, as crabs, clams, etc. Also applied to the fruit of a nut-tree.
| 1798 Spectator (N.Y.) 7 Nov. 2/5 Hardshell almond trees. 1818 Amer. Monthly Mag. II. 296 The hard shell clam..is cooked by roasting. 1855 Knickerbocker XLVI. 222 ‘Hard-shell’ clam-catchers. 1942 M. K. Rawlings Cross Creek xvii. 226 We have four turtles, the gopher;..the hard-shell cooter; the soft-shell; and the alligator cooter. |
2. fig. Rigid and uncompromising in religious orthodoxy.
Hardshell Baptists (U.S.), a strict sect of Baptists, of extreme Calvinistic views.
| 1838 W. Y. Allen Diary 17 July in S.W. Hist. Q. (1914) XVII. 54 Was introduced to Daddy Spraggins, a Hardshell Baptist preacher. 1846 J. J. Hooper Adv. Simon Suggs i. 13 He lived with his father, and an old ‘hard shell’ Baptist preacher. 1857 Elliott Sp. in Ho. Representatives (Bartlett), A regular member of the Hardshell Baptist Church. 1864 Spectator No. 1875. 643 ‘Hardshell Churchmen’ is the title of an article in this number, and the epithet is applied to Lord Robert Cecil's party. 1890 Spectator 8 Feb., The tough and hard shell type to which Judaism owes such strength and permanence as it has ever possessed. 1893 Daily Tel. 15 May 5/5 Like the American Hardshell Baptists they hold that there is nothing like religion. |
B. n.
1. A creature with a hard shell; a hard-shelled crab or clam. Also fig., a stubborn or unemotional person. (U.S.)
| 1858 South. Cultivator XVI. 187/2 We have, however, one or two specimens in our eye of the genus, hard shell, who still do as their daddies did. 1916 H. L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap iv. 135 A grouchy old hardshell with white hair and whiskers whirling about his head. 1919 T. K. Holmes Man fr. Tall Timber xiii. 156 I've ridden up here from Tall Timber Junction to get acquainted with you hardshells. |
2. = Hardshell Baptist: see A. 2. (U.S.)
| 1845 Knickerbocker XXVI. 285 A ‘Hard-Shell’ recently turned a ‘Soft-Shell’ out of church. 1848 Jones Sketches Trav. 30 (Farmer) The old hard-shell laid about him like death. 1855 Putnam's Monthly V. 190 The claim of ‘Hard-Shells’, touching their familiarity with the Bible. 1872 E. Eggleston Hoosier Schoolmaster xii, Of course the Hardshells are prodigiously illiterate. 1908 Dialect Notes III. 319 Hardshell, a Primitive Baptist. |
3. U.S. Politics. A member of the more conservative of the two factions into which the Democratic party in New York state was divided in 1852 and following years.
| 1853 N.Y. Tribune 2 Apr. (Bartlett), The difference between a Hardshell and a Softshell is this: one favors the Execution of the Fugitive Slave Law and goes for distribution of the offices among the Nationals, while the other is a loud stickler for Union and Harmony. 1864 Sala in Daily Tel. 18 Nov., After Democrats and Republicans, Hunkers and Hardshells, Miscegenators and Copperheads, have been replaced by honester and abler politicians. |