hardshelladj.n.
/ˈhɑːdʃɛl/, U.S. /ˈhɑrdˌʃɛl/ A. adj. (attributive).
1.
a. attributive. Chiefly U.S. Designating a (type of) shellfish, turtle, nut, etc., having a hard shell; = hard-shelled adj. 1. Cf. softshell adj. and n. Compounds.See also hardshell clam n., hardshell crab n. at Compounds.In quot. 1670 walnut is elliptically omitted after softshell, with both shell and walnut then omitted after hard.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > reproductive part(s) > fruit or reproductive product > nut > [adjective] > of or relating to a shell > having a shell > of a certain kind
hard-shelled1599
shelled1611
hardshell1670
softshell1670
paper-shelled1753
1670 J. Evelyn Sylva (ed. 2) viii. 44 The Wall-nut, is of several sorts; the soft shell, and the hard, the whiter, and the blacker grain.
1784 J. H. St. J. de Crèvecoeur Lettres d'un Cultivateur Américain II. 372 (note) Quahags, Clams dont l'écaille est très-dure, appellée en Anglois Hard Shell Clams.
1788 Hist. Rev. & Directory N. Amer. I. 264/1 (list) Nut trees... Hard Shell Almond.
1848 Mich. Farmer 15 Oct. 317/2 From Mrs. S. Gillet.—Red..grapes;..peaches;..hard shell almond.
1873 Sci. Amer. 19 July 36/3 Good, sizeable hard shell lobsters were at once caught.
1929 H. A. A. Nicholls & J. H. Holland Text-bk. Trop. Agric. (ed. 2) ii. xix. 553 The ‘Hard-shell’ palm nut (Elæis guineensis var. communis Chev. forma dura Becc.)—the nut is fairly thick and hard.
1942 M. K. Rawlings Cross Creek xvii. 226 We have four turtles, the gopher;..the hard-shell cooter; the soft-shell; and the alligator cooter.
2006 Grocer 9 Dec. 73/1 (advt.) We are known for our high quality in live hardshell lobster and other shellfish within retail and foodservice.
b. Designating a man-made object having a rigid, protective exterior.
ΚΠ
1936 North Adams (Mass.) Transcript 27 Nov. 9/3 (advt.) 12 bass Hohner piano accordion complete in hard shell case.
1969 Ski Sept. 92/3 These boots are more moderately priced, and offer as much or even more comfort than the hard-shell boots.
1991 D. Lodge Paradise News i. i. 9 Passenger R. J. Sheldrake, wearing a beige safari suit, and towing a practical hard-shell suitcase with built-in wheels, presents his complimentary ticket.
2001 Denver Post 21 Jan. t8/2 We were each fitted with a climbing harness, rain pants, jacket, gaiters and hard-shell boots.
2. figurative (originally and chiefly U.S.). Uncompromising, hard-line (originally esp. in regard to religious observance); = hard-shelled adj. 2b.Recorded earliest in hardshell Baptist n. at Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > orthodoxy > [adjective]
righteOE
orthodoxc1454
catholicc1500
sound1526
catholicala1530
orthodoxastical1570
orthodoxical1577
orthodoxal1607
symmetral1660
hardshell1836
hard-shelled1842
observant1902
bien pensant1923
society > faith > sect > Christianity > Protestantism > Baptists > [adjective] > strict
hardshell1836
hard-shelled1842
1836 Boston Investigator 22 July There are a great many Methodists and hard shell Baptists here [sc. Coffeeville, Mississippi].
1844 Scioto (Ohio) Gaz. 5 Sept. A circumstance which goes to show how deeply ‘hard-shell democracy’ is interested in eventuating public sentiment.
1887 Pall Mall Gaz. 24 May 2/1 The old hard-shell doctrines of predestination, election, miracles, incarnation, atonement by blood, everlasting punishment, and the resurrection of the body.
1919 Country Gentleman 2 Aug. 13/2 Though I'm a hard-shell conservative, yet I suppose I'm always a little more interested in the ‘try-to-doers’ than in the ‘againsters’.
1996 F. Chappell Farewell I'm bound to leave You (1997) 25 She hated waste worse than a hard-shell deacon hates sin.
2007 P. D. Beidler Amer. Wars, Amer. Peace 136 The populist progressives and the poor whites of the South, and the hardshell Protestant small farmers and mill workers, found common cause with [etc.]
B. n.† 1. In plural. U.S. colloquial. Hard cash. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > [noun] > ready money or cash
ready money1429
argent-contentc1540
bitec1555
present money1572
chink1580
cash1600
bit1607
real money1675
fob?c1680
Darby1682
ready1684
blunt1819
makeready1830
hardshells1840
ante1843
spot cash1855
call money1856
necessary1897
1840 Mississippian 3 Apr. Such stuff as was divided a week or two ago between some five or six members of the old directory of the Union Bank, wont answer with Europeans. The real ‘hard shells’ alone, will suit their palates.
1840 Mississippian 23 Oct. We heard a Director of the Union Bank remark..that he did not believe the bank had a dollar of specie; or, if there were any of the hard shells in the thing at all, they were pledged to secure individuals whose names are upon forthcoming bonds.
2. U.S.
a. = hardshell Baptist n. at Compounds. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > sect > Christianity > Protestantism > Baptists > [noun] > strict
hardshell1845
1845 Knickerbocker 26 285 A ‘Hard-Shell’ recently turned a ‘Soft-Shell’ out of church.
1848 W. T. Thompson Major Jones's Sketches Trav. iv. 30 The old hard-shell laid about him like rath [= wrath].
1871 E. Eggleston Hoosier School-master xii. 102 Of course the Hardshells are prodigiously illiterate.
1921 J. C. Campbell Southern Highlander & his Homeland 174 Some of the Hardshells are more liberal in giving and in communion than some of the Old Missionary Baptists.
2012 R. C. Richards Hist. Southern Baptists viii. 117 There were still large pockets of antimission Baptists of various sorts, such as the Primitives, Hardshells, followers of Campbell, and Daniel Parker's Two-Seeders.
b. Politics. A member of the more conservative of the two factions into which the Democratic Party in New York state was divided in 1852 and subsequent years. Later sometimes more generally: a conservative Democrat. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > American politics > [noun] > Democratic Party > member or adherent of > of branch of
loco-foco1835
loco1838
O.K.1840
hard1843
softshell1845
barn-burner1848
hardshell1852
soft1853
softshell1853
Bourbon1859
short-hairs1867
New Dem1962
Blue Dog1995
1852 N.-Y. Daily Times 19 Aug. The canvass was spirited between the Barn-burners and Hunkers, and the result shows that the ‘hard shells’ carried every Ward in the City excepting the Sixth.
1858 N.-Y. Times 14 Aug. 1/5 The Hard Shells of Troy are not content with the assignment of their Post-Office in the last general allotment of spoils to Mr. Fonda, the Soft Barn-burner Van Buren candidate.
1864 G. A. Sala in Daily Tel. 18 Nov. After Democrats and Republicans, Hunkers and Hardshells, Miscegenators and Copperheads, have been replaced by honester and abler politicians.
1923 R. F. Nichols Democratic Machine vi. 92 The hard-shells were determined that the barnburners must do penance for 1848 by swearing fealty to Cass.
2006 Jrnl. Southern Hist. 72 185 Democratic Hardshells in the North demanded Softshell and Barn-burner support of the bill as a test of loyalty in order to preclude their influence within the party.
c. gen. A person holding strict or conservative views; an obstinate or uncompromising person; a diehard.
ΚΠ
1858 Southern Cultivator 16 187/2 We have, however, one or two specimens in our eye of the genus, hard shell, who still do as their daddies did.
1890 Homœpathic Envoy June 8/1 It is amusing to hear these old hard-shells still gravely claiming medical monopoly just as though free schools and a free press were still but dreams.
1916 H. L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap iv. 135 A grouchy old hardshell with white hair and whiskers whirling about his head.
1944 S. H. Adams Canal Town xv. 152 When they discovered that the spicy-odorous oil protected them from the stinging pests..they accepted the relief gratefully, all but a few old hard-shells who disdained to mollycoddle themselves.
1991 Santa Fe New Mexican 20 Aug. a8/4 Politically, he was a masterful tactician, playing off democrats and free-marketeers on the left against the hardshells and leftover Stalinists on the right.
3. U.S. An animal with a hard shell; spec. (a) a quahog or hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria; (b) a crab with a shell that has hardened after moulting. Cf. softshell n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > decision > obstinacy or stubbornness > [noun] > obstinate or stubborn person
obstinate1435
mumpsimus1530
obstinant1581
ram-head1605
sitfast1606
stiff-stander1642
obduratea1665
ironface1697
sturdy1704
stiffrump1709
sturdy-boots1762
stickfast1827
impracticable1829
mule1846
bullet-head1848
hardshell1849
die-hard1857
hog on ice1857
last-ditcher1862
thick-and-thinnite1898
jusqu'auboutiste1916
stiff-neck1921
dead-ender1956
toughie1960
1849 M. H. Perley Rep. Fisheries Gulf St. Lawrence 21 There are two varieties of the Clam, distinguished as the ‘Hard-Shell’, and the ‘Soft-Shell’.
1855 Knickerbocker 46 222 ‘Hard-shell’ clam-catchers.
1907 Washington Post 16 June (Misc. section) 1/5 ‘Get plenty of crabs and the varmints will leave.’ Accordingly, the Town Council ordered several car loads of the hardest hard-shells they could find in Baltimore.
1970 N.Y. Times Mag. 2 Dec. 26/4 Most clams in the [Long Island] Sound are hardshells, otherwise known as quahogs—the kind you eat raw or in chowders, not the kind you steam.
2003 Philadelphia July 134/2 Matterhorns of meaty Maryland hard-shells are presented on plastic trays with a steaming slosh of spicy boiling liquid.
Compounds
hardshell Baptist n. U.S. (now historical) a member of the Primitive Baptists; (sometimes more generally) a Baptist holding strict views.
ΚΠ
1836Hard shell Baptists [see sense A. 2].
1861 Bradford Observer 2 May 7/5 ‘An honest man is the noblest work of the Lord!’ enthusiastically exclaimed a hard-shell Baptist.
1918 R. Pumpelly My Reminisc. II. xlix. 667 Boss Crawford, who prided himself on being a hardshell Baptist, was the preacher.
2006 C. Frazier Thirteen Moons i. i. 5 My doctors prohibits liquor, and so my own home has become as strict as if it were run by hard-shell Baptists.
hardshell clam n. U.S. the hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria.Contrasted with softshell clam n. at softshell adj. and n. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1784Hard Shell Clams [see sense A. 1a].
1857 J. G. Swan Northwest Coast 85 The quahaug or hard-shell clam, called by them clolum, is found near the surface.
1950 N.Y. Times 22 June 32/6 These [rocks] were left to heat through..until shortly after noon, when soft and hard-shell clams were packed on top of them.
2003 N.Y. Times Mag. 13 July 54/2 Hard-shell clams are the littlenecks (smallest), cherrystones (larger) and chowder (largest) found in most fish markets.
hardshell crab n. U.S. a crab, esp. an edible crab ( Cancer pagurus), that has not recently moulted and so has a fully hardened shell.Contrasted with softshell crab n. at softshell adj. and n. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1856 H. P. Leland Grey-bay Mare xx. 111 I must try and remember that the next time I am at the sea-shore, and receive an invitation to go and catch, hard-shell crabs.
1942 E. Ferber Saratoga Trunk (new ed.) i. 25 The hard-shell crab stew..soft-shell turtle ragout.
2008 Time Out N.Y. 18 Sept. 58/4 Start with $2 roti canai.., and move on to succulent hard-shell crabs, slathered in a fresh, fiery ginger-scallion sauce.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
adj.n.1670