Hull Meaning
/hʌl/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe outer covering of a fruit or seed.
nounAny covering.
Sentence Examples
The alien shot his ray gun and blasted a hole in the spaceship's hull.
Hull was given immediate orders to invade Canada.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The sailors repaired the ship's ____ after it hit a rock and started taking on water.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Inspectors found a small crack in the ship's ____ that needed to be repaired immediately.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"VVhen you haue berthed or brought her [the ship] vp to the planks, vvhich are thoſe thicke timbers vvhich goeth fore and aft on each ſide, vvhereon doth lie the beames of the firſt Orlop, vvhich is the firſt floore to ſupport the plankes doth couer the Hovvle, thoſe are great croſſe timbers, that keepes the ſhip ſides aſunder, the maine beame is euer next the maine maſt, […]"
— 1627, Iohn Smith [i.e., John Smith], “How to Build a Ship with the Definitions of All the Principall Names of Euery Part of her Principall Timbers, also How They are Fixed One to Another, and the Reasons of Their Vse”, in A Sea Grammar, with the Plaine Exposition of Smiths Accidence for Young Sea-men, Enlarged. […], London: […] Iohn Haviland, →OCLC, page 5:
"Deep in their hulls our deadly bullets light, / And through the yielding planks a passage find."
— 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, stanza 60:
"We goe not, but we are carried: as things that flote, now gliding gently, now hulling violently, according as the water is, either stormy or calme."
— 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 1, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
"[…] Thus hulling in
The wild sea of my conscience, I did steer
Toward this remedy, whereupon we are
Now present here together:"
— 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:
"In this virtuous voyage of life hull not about like the ark, without the use of rudder, mast, or sail, and bound for no port."
— 1716, Thomas Browne, edited by Samuel Johnson, Christian Morals, 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, published 1756, Part I, p. 8:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The sailors repaired the ship's ____ after it hit a rock and started taking on water.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Inspectors found a small crack in the ship's ____ that needed to be repaired immediately.