Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The dry outer covering of a fruit, seed, or nut; a husk.
  • noun The persistent calyx of a fruit, such as a strawberry, that is usually green and easily detached.
  • noun Nautical The frame or body of a ship, exclusive of masts, engines, or superstructure.
  • noun The main body of various other large vehicles, such as a tank, airship, or flying boat.
  • noun The outer casing of a rocket, guided missile, or spaceship.
  • transitive verb To remove the hulls of (fruit or seeds).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A hovel; a pen; a sty.
  • noun The frame or body of a ship, exclusive of her masts, yards, and rigging.
  • noun Hence— In sporting, so far behind as to stand no chance of winning.
  • noun An outer covering, particularly of a nut or of grain; a husk.
  • noun Synonyms Husk, etc. See skin, n.
  • To strip off the hull or hulls of: as, to hull grain; to hull strawberries.
  • To strip off.
  • To strike or pierce the hull of (a ship) with a cannon-ball.
  • To float or drift on the water, as the hull of a ship without the aid of sails.
  • noun Holly.
  • noun A dialectal pronunciation of whole, common in New England.
  • A variant of hill.
  • To shell (oysters).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To strip off or separate the hull or hulls of; to free from integument.
  • transitive verb To pierce the hull of, as a ship, with a cannon ball.
  • noun The outer covering of anything, particularly of a nut or of grain; the outer skin of a kernel; the husk.
  • noun (Naut.) The frame or body of a vessel, exclusive of her masts, yards, sails, and rigging.
  • noun said of a ship so distant that her hull is concealed by the convexity of the sea.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To toss or drive on the water, like the hull of a ship without sails.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The outer covering of a fruit or seed
  • verb To remove the outer covering of a fruit or seed.
  • noun The body or frame of a vessel such as a ship or plane
  • verb obsolete, intransitive, nautical to drift; to be carried by the impetus of wind or water on the ship's hull alone, with sails furled
  • verb transitive to hit (a ship) in the hull with cannon fire etc

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the frame or body of ship
  • noun persistent enlarged calyx at base of e.g. a strawberry or raspberry
  • noun dry outer covering of a fruit or seed or nut
  • noun United States naval officer who commanded the `Constitution' during the War of 1812 and won a series of brilliant victories against the British (1773-1843)
  • verb remove the hulls from
  • noun a large fishing port in northeastern England
  • noun United States diplomat who did the groundwork for creating the United Nations (1871-1955)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English hol, husk, from Old English hulu; see kel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English hul ("seed covering"), from Old English hulu ("seed covering"), from Proto-Germanic *hulus (compare German Hülle, Hülse ("cover, veil")), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *kal- (“hard”) (compare Old Irish calad, calath ("hard"), Latin callus, callum ("rough skin"), Old Church Slavonic калити (kaliti, "to cool, harden"), Albanian akull ("ice")). For the sense development, compare French coque ("nutshell; ship's hull"), Ancient Greek φάσηλος (phasēlos, "bean pod; yacht").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin uncertain; perhaps the same word as Etymology 1, above.

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