hull
/hʌl/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms hulls hulling hulled
- noun The outer covering of a fruit or seed.
- noun Any covering.
- verb To remove the outer covering of a fruit or seed. “She sat on the back porch hulling peanuts.”
- noun (nautical, aviation) The body or frame of a vessel, such as a ship or plane.
- noun (mathematics, geometry, of a set A) The smallest set that possesses a particular property (such as convexity) and contains every point of A; slightly more formally, the intersection of all sets which possess the specified property and of which A is a subset. “The orthogonal convex hull of an orthogonal polygon is the smallest orthogonally convex polygon that encloses the original polygon.”
- verb (obsolete, intransitive, nautical) To drift; to be carried by the impetus of wind or water on the ship's hull alone, with sails furled.
- verb (transitive) To hit (a ship) in the hull with cannon fire etc.
- proper noun A river in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, which flows into the Humber.
- proper noun The common name of Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
- proper noun Hull, Quebec: The central business district and oldest neighborhood of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in DeSoto County, Florida.
- proper noun A city in Madison County, Georgia.
- proper noun A village in Pike County, Illinois.
- proper noun A city in Sioux County, Iowa.
- proper noun A coastal town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts.
Synonyms
peel husk shell shuck fuselage affine hull affine span span Isaac Hull Cordell Hull Kingston-upon Hull
Etymology
From Middle English hul, hulle, holle (“seed covering, hull of a ship”), from Old English hulu (“seed covering”), from Proto-Germanic *hul-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide”); or possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kal- (“hard”).
Compare Dutch hul (“hood”), German Hülle (“cover, wrap”), Hülse (“hull”); also Old Irish calad, calath (“hard”), Latin callus, callum (“rough skin”), Old Church Slavonic калити (kaliti, “to cool, harden”). For the sense development, compare French coque (“nutshell; ship's hull”), Ancient Greek φάσηλος (phásēlos, “bean pod; yacht”).
From Middle English holle, hoole (“hull, hold of a ship, ship”), of uncertain origin. Possibly a variant and special use of Etymology 1 above, conformed to hull. Alternatively, a variant of Middle English hole, hoole, holle (“hiding place, lair, den, shelter, compartment”, literally “hole, hollow”), related to Middle Dutch and Dutch hol (“hole, ship's cargo hold”). More at hole.
The town in England is Inherited from Middle English Hull, Hul, Hulle, traditionally derived from Proto-Brythonic *hʉl, from Proto-Celtic *soulos, from Proto-Indo-European *sew- (“to press”); Breeze instead suggests derivation from hula, plural of hulu (“hut”). Chaucer's Hulle (for expected *Hul, *Hule) is presumably a hypercorrect Southern form.
The surname is either from the English town or Middle English hulle, western variant of hylle (“hill”); many other place names are ultimately from the surname.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The outer covering of anything, particularly of a nut or of grain; the outer skin of a kernel; the husk.
- noun The frame or body of a vessel, exclusive of her masts, yards, sails, and rigging.
- verb To strip off or separate the hull or hulls of; to free from integument; as, to hull corn.
- verb To pierce the hull of, as a ship, with a cannon ball.
Etymology [OE. hul, hol, shell, husk, AS. hulu; akin to G. hülle covering, husk, case, hüllen to cover, Goth. huljan to cover, AS. helan to hele, conceal. sq. root17. See Hele, v. t., Hell.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “hull”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details