ADJ
- broken, empty, hard, outer, protective, thick (figurative)
- She had built up a protective shell of indifference around herself
- egg (also eggshell)
- cockle, conch, cowrie, fossil, mollusc, mussel, oyster, scallop, sea (also seashell), snail
- The garden was littered with empty snail shells
- coconut, walnut
VERB + SHELL
- have
- creatures that have shells
- come out of, emerge from (often figurative)
- He's really come out of his shell since he met Marie
- go (back) into, retreat into, withdraw into
- The snail went back into its shell
- remove sth from
- Remove the mussels from their shells
ADJ
- heavy
- unexploded
- anti-aircraft, artillery, cannon, howitzer, mortar
SHELL + VERB
- fall, land
- blow up, burst, crash, explode
- hit sth, strike sth
- Two shells hit the roof
- blow sth apart/off, blow sb/sth up
SHELL + NOUN
- fire
- They braved heavy shell fire to rescue the wounded
- case/casing, fragments, splinter
- crater, hole
ADJ
- concrete
- burnt-out, empty, hollow
- The fire reduced the school to a hollow shell