hard-shell
Americanadjective
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Also hard-shelled having a firm, hard shell, as a crab in its normal state; not having recently molted.
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rigid or uncompromising.
noun
adjective
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zoology having a shell or carapace that is thick, heavy, or hard
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strictly orthodox
noun
Etymology
Origin of hard-shell
First recorded in 1790–1800
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Modern restaurant menus, with the familiar enchiladas and tamales and hard-shell tacos, can resemble Tex-Mex, but never say that to a New Mexican local.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
He once bought a $117 pair of MSCHF’s Gobstomper shoes whose soles wear down to reveal differing colors in a nod to the hard-shell candy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
He told his father his feet were "made for beaches and not hard-shell boots".
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2026
"Depending on the contaminant and its chemistry, if it is small enough to pass through the gills of the mussel, it has the potential to accumulate in their tissue or precipitate within the hard-shell structure."
From Science Daily ● May 31, 2024
The Bay at hand, and its estuaries, abounded in trout, hogfish, rock, shad, sturgeon and other edible species in season, not to speak of soft-shell crabs, hard-shell crabs, turtles, terrapin, clams and oysters.
From Domestic Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century by Annie Lash Jester
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
