▪ I. shale, n.1 Obs. exc. dial. (in various senses see Eng. Dial. Dict.).
(ʃeɪl)
Forms: 1 scealu, scalu, 3–5, 7, 9 dial. schale, 4 schal, 5 pl. shalus, 6 shaell, (7 erron. shalt), 4 shale.
[OE. sc(e)alu str. fem.:—OTeut. *skalō, ablaut-variant of *skǣlō, represented by ON. skál scale n.1, q.v. for the Teut. cognates.]
† 1. A dish; a cup or goblet: = scale n.1 1. Obs.
| c 1075 in Kemble Cod. Dipl. IV. 275, .vi. mæsene sceala. a 1225 [see scale n.1 1 β]. c 1325 Metr. Hom. 120 Seruanz war at this bridale, That birled win in cupp and schal. |
† 2. A shell, husk, esp. the shell or outer covering of a nut, which encloses the kernel; also the pod of peas or beans, etc. Obs.
[Also in † nutshale, examples of which (c 1205–1577) are given under nutshell n., where see the equivalent forms in continental Teut.]
| c 825 Epinal Gloss. 462 Glumula, scalu. [c 1050 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 371/1 Cittis, uilmenum, æpelscealum ymb ða cyrnlu. a 1100 in Napier OE. Glosses i. 608 Quisquiliarum, æswæpe, beanscalu.] c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame 1281, I saugh him carien a wind-melle Under a walsh-note shale. c 1430 Lydg. Letabundus 227 in Minor P. (1911) 56 The husk is falle, brokyn is the shale, The noote kernel, Closyd in scripturys..Al openly shewith his swetnesse. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 644/2 From the tone [sacrament] take they the swete carnel within, the blessed body of Christ, and leaue the people the shales. 1540 Palsgr. Acolastus Argt. C j, He releued his hunger with peskod shales, or the huskes of other graynes. 1584 Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1585) Ep. Ded. *ij b, There is found wheate among tares,..a kearnell within the shale [1663 shaell], marrow within the bone. 1659 Robotham Gate Lang. Unlocked xi. §121 He that hath a minde to get out the kernel..must put away the husk [marg. Peel, coat, shalt]. 1668 Wilkins Real Char. ii. vi. §i. 171 Cod, Husk, Pod, Shell, shale, siliquous. |
| fig. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iv. ii. 18 Doe but behold yond poore and starued Band, And your faire shew shall suck away their Soules, Leauing them but the shales and huskes of men. 1617 tr. A. de Dominis' Serm. (Rom. xiii. 12) 52 They stuffe them vp with swines meat, the huskes, and shales of these superfluous, and superstitious deuotions. |
† b. As an example of something without value.
| c 1400 Laud Troy Bk. 7234 So wonderly the wynd it blewe, That alle here tentis ouerthrewe; Al ȝede to grounde bothe tent and hale, Here ropes vayled not of a schale. |
† c. The shell of an egg or a shell-fish. rare.
| 1561 Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 11 b, Beat egges shales to pouder. 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 99 Periwincles..are alwaies clothed with one and the same shale. |
† d. The refuse of hemp: = sheave n.2
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. 39 b, Of Hempe..the Shales or Stalkes serue for the heating of Ouens. |
3. A scale (of a fish, of metal, of a scaly disease, etc.). Obs. exc. dial.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiii. xxix. (Tollemache MS.), Fische þat ben bred in þe see haue harde shales and þikke,..and ryuer fische haueþ sotel schales. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 4601, & dame Alfyne woke of hurre slepe þo after anone: And mony shalus he syȝe falle from hurre heyȝe þo,—Þen myȝt he syȝe welle, & alle hurre sekenesse was agone. 1611 Cotgr., Finfreluches, shales, or scales, or scalie excrements; as dandriffe, &c. 1655 W. F. Observ. Fulke's Bk. Meteors 170 Iron..purged in the fire,..in such sort as that which is earthy, doth at last turn to schales and dross. 1880 W. Cornw. Gloss., Shale, a scale of a fish; a flake. |
† b. Comb., shale-fish = shell-fish. Obs.
| 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 41 Ostiris, Buckies, and vthiris schal fishe. |
4. A mesh of a net. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1606 S. Gardiner Bk. Angling 37 Some..breake the shales of the net. 1855 Anna Gurney Norf. Words in Trans. Phil. Soc. 36 Shale, the mesh of a net. |
5. dial. ‘Loose substance from a mine or quarry; loose ore’ (Eng. Dial. Dict.); see also quots.
[Cf. OE. stánscalu, ? a rocky stratum denuded of soil, whence stánscyliᵹ stony (ground).]
| 1793 A. Young Agric. Sussex 16 The various sorts of lime-stone..with the thickness and shale of each different sort. 1860 Eng. & Foreign Mining Gloss. (ed. 2) Cornw. 21 Scal, a shale or portion of earth, rock &c., which separates and falls from the main body. 1882 Jago Cornw. Gloss. 256 Schale, a scale, as a ‘schale of earth’, or earth slide in an excavation. |
▪ II. shale, n.2
(ʃeɪl)
[Perh. a use of shale n.1, or a derivative of shale v. (sense 5).
There is no sufficient reason for the common view that it is a. G. schale (= shale n.1), which is not used in this sense (the G. equivalent being schieferthon ‘slate clay’); schale however occurs for a thin layer of ore or stone, and the Deutsches Wbuch. has schalstein a laminated limestone, schalgebirge, explained as ‘a layer of stone in a stratified range of mountains’.]
1. a. An argillaceous fissile rock, the laminæ of which are usually fragile and uneven, and mostly parallel to the bedding; often overlying a coal formation. Also with qualifying word as bituminous shale, etc.
| 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict. L iv b, Strong Beds, Shale, or Chists. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 182 Slate Clay, Shale. 1811 J. Farey Derbyshire I. 443 It is not uncommon with colliers to call any Argillaceous Stratum in very thin lamina by the name of Shale. 1833 Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 334 The conversion of clay into shale, and of sand into sandstone, may, in many cases, be attributed to simple pressure. 1884 Times (weekly ed.) 19 Sept. 3/2 A ring of shale, part of a large ribbed bead of delf. |
b. A variety or specimen of this rock.
| 1830 [see bituminous a. b]. 1832 H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. (ed. 2) 315 Shales, grits, &c. 1873 C. Robinson N.S. Wales 52 Deposits of brown cannel oil coals and oil shales. 1878 A. H. Green etc., Coal i. 25 Tasmanite is a shale containing from 26 to 30 per cent. of combustible matter. 1890 Hardwicke's Sci. Gossip XXVI. 245/2 Next in order above the sandstones..occur the black shales. |
c. spec. = alum-shale. dial.
| 1825–80 Jamieson, Shale, a name given to alum ore. 1847 Halliwell, Shale,..alum ore. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Shale, the gray alum rock of this quarter. |
2. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib., as shale distillation, shale limestone, shale mine, shale miner; instrumental, as shale-sprinkled adj.
| 1842 Sedgwick in Hudson's Guide Lakes (1843) 209 Third Group, or Shale Limestone.—This group forms the upper part of the calcareous zone on the north side of the Cumbrian mountains. 1884 Times (weekly ed.) 19 Sept. 3/2 Beyond..turning up a large, ornamental shale ring, nothing could be done. 1887 Pall Mall Gaz. 21 Sept. 11/2 The shale miners of Scotland. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 30 May 5/3 Mr. Robert Bell..was the first to manufacture oil from shale distillation in Scotland. 1901 Kipling Kim xiv. 358 They held the shale⁓sprinkled grass for an hour. |
b. Special comb.: shale-naphtha, -oil, naphtha and oil obtained by the destructive distillation of bituminous shale; shale shaker, a vibrating screen used in oil and gas drilling to remove drill cuttings from the circulating drilling mud that is passed through it; † shale-shiver, laminated shale; shale-stone dial., slate; shale-tar, tar derived from bituminous shale.
| 1855 Q. Jrnl. Chem. Soc. VII. 106 The existence in *shale naphtha of the isomer of cumidine. |
| 1857 Miller Elem. Chem., Org. ix. 580 (heading) *Shale oils. 1886 Pall Mall Gaz. 14 Dec. 4/1 The Midland has begun to burn shale oil in the lamps hung in its suburban trains. 1945 Heald & Ayres in L. M. Fanning Our Oil Resources vi. 185 Crude shale oil is produced from oil shale by retorting. 1976 Time 20 Dec. 41/1 Prices for getting shale oil or using wet-steam deposits in the earth to generate electricity are also far from commercially acceptable. |
| 1959 Petroleum Handbk. (Shell) (ed. 4) 85 On reaching the well head it is diverted via a horizontal flow line to a vibrating screen or ‘*shale shaker’. 1974 G. S. Ormsby in P. L. Moore et al. Drilling Practices Manual vi. 152 The term ‘shale shaker’ is used in drilling mud work to cover all the devices that in another industry might be differentiated as ‘shaking’ screen, ‘vibrating screens’, and ‘oscillating screens’. |
| 1794 T. Hutchinson Hist. Cumbld. I. Catal. Anim., etc. 46 *Shale Shiver. |
| 1880 W. Cornw. Gloss., *Shale-stone, Shilstone, slate. |
| 1857 Miller Elem. Chem., Org. ix. 580 *Shale tar is particularly rich in basic substances. |
▪ III. shale, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.
(ʃeɪl)
Also 5 schale, 6 shaell, (7 shalle, 9 shail).
[f. shale n.1]
1. trans. To free from the shell or husk; to remove, take off (the shell or husk) from a nut, bean, fruit, etc.; to decorticate (hemp). ? Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. liii. (1495) 812 Amptes shale the greynes that they done togyders for they sholde not growe ayen and wexe grene corn. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 25 Take smalle notes, schale not [? out] kurnele, As þou dose of almondes, fayre and wele. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. xl. 13 Take grete Oystrys, an schale hem. c 1518 Kal. Sheph. i. A v, Yet may they syt and shaell peson. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. 41 Hempe haruest..The Male..is made vp in bundels to be knockt and shaled [orig. confringenda, decorticataque repurganda] in Winter euenynges. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 643 Parched barley which hath bene well shaled. 1613–16 W. Browne Brit. Past. ii. iv. 97 A little Lad set on a bancke to shale The ripen'd Nuts pluck'd in a woody Vale. 1622 Sir R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea xxiv. 55 They haue hudds, as our Beanes, which shaled off, the kernell parteth it selfe in two. 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xviii. 145 The Bean is not seen till..its swad..be shaled. |
| fig. a 1680 T. Goodwin Blessed State x. Wks. 1703 V. iii. 64 This Abundancy of Life, that is in God, instantly shales off, Works out all that Filth, Frailty, Misery. |
† b. intr. To allow of being shelled. rare.
| 1600 Surflet Country Farm iii. lxv. 581 The vttermost pilling of common walnuts, whether it shale willingly or no may be distilled in the moneth of September. |
2. Of grain, seed, etc.: To drop out.
| [1578 ? Implied in shaling ppl. a.] 1642 D. Rogers Naaman 616 Suffer it to shale and fall to the ground for lack of reaping. 1764 Museum Rust. II. xxv. 80 Coleseed is a seed that will shed or shale very greatly, if it is not reaped in proper time. 1895 E. Angl. Gloss., Shail..to drop out. |
† 3. trans. To shed (a tooth). Obs. rare.
| 1686–7 Aubrey Rem. Gentilisme (1881) 11 When Children shaled their Teeth. Ibid. 27 When children did shalle a tooth they rubbed salt upon it, and then threw it into the fire. |
4. intr. Of water: To form an incrustation. rare—1.
| 1844 H. Hutchinson Treat. Pract. Drainage Land 160 In some drains water will shale or form an incrustation upon the flat tile. |
5. To cleave, as stones in being raised.
| 1712 J. Morton Nat. Hist. Northampt. 129 Rammel, a Stone unfit for Building, because in the raising it cleaves or shales into many small uneaven Pieces. 1851 Sternberg Northampt. Gloss. 93. |
† 6. to shale out: ? to strip (a tree). Obs.
| 1618 W. Lawson New Orch. & Garden xiii. (1623) 45 The Bul-finch is a deuourer of your Fruit in the bud, I haue had whole trees shald out with them in Winter-time. |
▪ IV. shale, v.2 rare.
(ʃeɪl)
[app. echoic: see quot. 1834.]
intr. Of water: To make the sound characteristic of tidal movement near the shore.
| 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge xvi. (1842) 299 The water in the bay..again rushed in with a loud shaling noise,—I coin the word for the sound—in bores nearly ten feet high. 1890 Clark Russell Marriage at Sea ix, A gentle shaling noise of waters broken by the passage of the vessel. 1897 ― Last Entry 57 The stream of tide softly shaled along the bends of the schooner. |
▪ V. shale
variant of shail v.2