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heart shell

American  

noun

  1. any of numerous bivalve mollusks, especially of the families Cardiidae and Carditidae, having a heart-shaped shell.

  2. the shell itself.

Etymology

Origin of heart shell

First recorded in 1745–55

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.

In the past, other names now associated with the same symptoms include "soldier's heart," "shell shock" and "thousand-yard stare."

From US News • Oct. 4, 2016

The psychic toll of war has been variously described as nostalgia, soldier’s heart, shell shock, war neuroses or simply exhaustion, and there have always been skeptics.

From Washington Post • Sep. 11, 2015

This heart shell had to be cracked apart with forceps.

From Time Magazine Archive

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.