ˈpearl-ˌshell
1. A shell having a nacreous coating; mother-of-pearl as naturally found. Also rhetorically, something resembling such a shell.
| 1614 Sylvester Bethulia's Rescue iv. 379 Her soft sleek slender hands..With purest Pearl-shell had each finger tipt. 1887 Guillemard Cruise of Marchesa II. 321 To send schooners to the northern coast for pearl-shell and gum-dammar. 1903 Daily Chron. 30 Oct. 5/4 The pearl⁓shell from which mother-of-pearl ornaments are made. |
2. Any shell producing pearls; a pearl-mussel.
| 1788 Rees Chambers' Cycl., Pearl shell or gaper. See Mya. [Mya..a bivalve shell gaping at one end... On being squeezed, they will eject the pearl.] 1815 Jas. Arbuthnot Fishes Buchan 32 Mytellus Margaritifera, Pearl Muscle, vulgarly called Pearl Shell. |
3. attrib. Of or resembling a pearly shell.
| a 1618 Sylvester Ode Astræa xvi, Those five nimble brethren small Arm'd with Pearl-shell helmets all. 1894 S. Fiske Holiday Stories (1900) 215 Hattie, listening with all her pearl-shell ears. |
Hence ˈpearl-ˌsheller, one who fishes for pearl-shells; ˈpearl-ˌshelling n., the collecting of pearl-shells: adj. engaged in this.
| 1887 Pall Mall G. 28 Oct. 11/1 Its timber and pearl-shelling industries. Ibid. 11/2 Cossack is the great rendezvous of the pearl-shelling fleet. Ibid. 28 Nov. 12/1 Pearl shellers..working on the north-west coast of Australia with twelve schooners, seventy-five luggers, and 642 men. 1889 H. H. Romilly Verandah in N. Guinea 23 He has been everything—overlander, explorer, gold-digger, pearl-sheller. Ibid., Reports of pearl-shelling and Bêche de Mer fishing. |