hard-shell

[hahrd-shel]

See more synonyms for hard-shell on Thesaurus.com

adjective

Also hard-shelled. having a firm, hard shell, as a crab in its normal state; not having recently molted.
rigid or uncompromising.

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noun

hard-shell crab.

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Origin of hard-shell

First recorded in 1790–1800

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

accepted accustomed chronic deep-rooted deep-seated dyed-in-the-wool entrenched fixed habituated hardened ineradicable ingrained inveterate irradicable proved seasoned set settled staid inured

Examples from the Web for hard-shell

Contemporary Examples

There are reasons, in other words, for hard-shell conservatives to give him the gimlet eye.
Rand Paul Woos the Base With Hot Monica Lewinsky Talk
Michael Tomasky
February 12, 2014
One main culprit was the hard-shell helmet that had essentially become a spearing weapon.
Super Bowl XLVIII Is Set to Be the Most Violent One Yet
Evin Demirel
January 30, 2014
What the hard-shell righties want to know is not about the boring issue of consular security.
The Nonexistent Case Against Susan Rice Crumbles
Michael Tomasky
November 16, 2012
From a policy perspective, this is the next battleground, the pressure point of resistance for the hard-shell ideologues.
The Resistance Begins: Rick Scott Announces Florida Won't Take Medicaid Money
Michael Tomasky
July 2, 2012

Historical Examples

The former is sold in the San Francisco markets as the "hard-shell clam."
The Sea-beach at Ebb-tide
Augusta Foote Arnold
He is such a hard-shell being that he cannot put out feelers to his kind.
Greenmantle
John Buchan
This man was a Hard-shell Baptist, commonly imperturbable to outside sights and doings when the spirit moved him.
The Lincoln Story Book
Henry L. Williams
The Almonds commonly sold by nurserymen in the east are hard-shell varieties, and the nuts are not good enough for commerce.
The Practical Garden-Book
C. E. Hunn
These people boast that their hard-shell wheat is decidedly superior to that of Dakota and Minnesota.
A Summer's Outing
Carter H. Harrison

British Dictionary definitions for hard-shell

hard-shell

adjective also: hard-shelled

zoology having a shell or carapace that is thick, heavy, or hard
US strictly orthodox

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noun

another name for the quahog

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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012