shell fragment
1
3.4
- noun
- /ʃɛl ˈfræŋɡmənt/
:
fragmento de concha
- As we walked along the beach, I found a beautiful shell fragment that glimmered in the sunlight.
Examples
-
While sifting through the sand, she discovered a shell fragment that had vibrant colors.
-
Waves lapped at our feet, and her young son brought over a shell fragment.
Blog text (18) -
Generally, after a while, you could get good enough that you could tell whether it was a piece of tin, possibly a shell fragment, or how long or wide it was.
Academic text (2014) -
The shell collector would hear them sifting through the banks of shell fragments left by the spring tide.
Fiction book (2001) -
While they were doing that, my father was in the cotton and cornfields looking for Minie balls and shell fragments.
Academic text (2014) -
While Robert E. Lee's army remained heavily entrenched around Petersburg, Sharpe was wounded when a shell fragment struck his leg.
Academic text (2008) -
The artist used a shell fragment as inspiration for her next sculpture, admiring its unique texture.
Synonyms
184
3.2
A small piece broken off something larger
1
7.4
A small broken piece of an object, like coral or pottery
Small thin pieces that break off when something is smashed
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a small piece of a broken shell' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'shell' (hard outer case) with 'fragment' (a small separated piece). This noun+noun compositional pattern is productive in English and mirrored in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
The compound shell fragment comes from the simple image of a shell breaking and leaving a fragment. Because fragment means 'a small piece', the phrase means a small broken piece of a shell.