Shellpad
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A turtle or tortoise. dialectal, no-plural, rare
"Of other he was called shilpad, that is to say, shelt-toad; for that he, being a short grundy, and of little stature, did ride commonly with a great broad hat, as a churl of the country."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Of other he was called shilpad, that is to say, shelt-toad; for that he, being a short grundy, and of little stature, did ride commonly with a great broad hat, as a churl of the country."
Etymology
From earlier shell padde, equivalent to shell + pad (“toad”). Compare Saterland Frisian Skildpudde (“turtle, tortoise”), West Frisian skyldpod (“tortoise”), Middle Dutch schildpadde (Dutch schildpad, Afrikaans skilpad), Middle Low German schildpadde, Danish skildpadde. See also shield-toad.
Related phrases
More for "shellpad"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.