cockleshell

American  

[kok-uhl-shel] / ˈkɒk əlˌʃɛl /

noun

1. a shell of the cockle.

2. a shell of some other mollusk, as the scallop.

3. Nautical. any light or frail vessel.

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cockleshell British  

/ ˈkɒkəlˌʃɛl /

noun

1. the shell of the cockle

2. any of the valves of the shells of certain other bivalve molluscs, such as the scallop

3. any small light boat

4. a badge worn by pilgrims

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Etymology

Origin of cockleshell

First recorded in 1375–1425, cockleshell is from late Middle English cokille shell. See cockle ¹, shell

Example Sentences

This grotesquely cast Marco Polo skips like a cockleshell over the surface of Marco's famed Munchausenish travel tale, comes at length to a cockleshell's finale.

From Time Magazine Archive

So sure were these hardy Elizabethans of reaching their goal that they sheathed their cockleshell ships with lead, to protect the timbers from the worms of India.

From Time Magazine Archive

On view in a Manhattan gallery were 27 oils and watercolors, all done in 1952: autumn hillsides, foaming seas and cockleshell boats, apple blossoms, circuses.

From Time Magazine Archive

Since the days when cockleshell Phoenician galleys first began to crisscross the Mediterranean, men have made fortunes trading abroad.

From Time Magazine Archive

A few minutes later, the little craft—oh, what a frail cockleshell she looked in the midst of that mountainous sea!—swept close under our stern and, splendidly handled by Roberts, came to under our lee.

From The Cruise of the "Esmeralda" by Overend, William Heysham