Cockleshell
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The shell of a cockle (or similar shell).
"The moment land had disappeared, the great canoe seemed no larger than a cockleshell; the waves lapped dangerously near to the tops of the gunwales, all but toppling into the canoe; and that is the curious thing about Polynesian canoes: the water always laps just to the tops of the gunwales, no matter whether the canoe is shallow or deep, whether empty or heavily laden."
- 2 a small light flimsy boat wordnet
- 3 A small, flimsy boat.
Example
More examples"The moment land had disappeared, the great canoe seemed no larger than a cockleshell; the waves lapped dangerously near to the tops of the gunwales, all but toppling into the canoe; and that is the curious thing about Polynesian canoes: the water always laps just to the tops of the gunwales, no matter whether the canoe is shallow or deep, whether empty or heavily laden."
Etymology
From cockle + shell.
More for "cockleshell"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.