\Shale\, n. [AS. scealy, scalu. See {Scalme}, and cf.
{Shell}.]
1. A shell or husk; a cod or pod. ``The green shales of a
   bean.'' --Chapman.
2. [G. shale.] (Geol.) A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a
   thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.
{Bituminous shale}. See under {Bituminous}.

\Shale\, v. t.
To take off the shell or coat of; to shell.
      Life, in its upper grades, was bursting its shell, or
      was shaling off its husk.                --I. Taylor.