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Added 1 October 2026

hull

/hʌl/ noun

Latin root: callus Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about hull at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

The outer covering of a fruit or seed.
Any covering.

verb

To remove the outer covering of a fruit or seed.
She sat on the back porch hulling peanuts.

noun

The body or frame of a vessel, such as a ship or plane.
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

To drift; to be carried by the impetus of wind or water on the ship's hull alone, with sails furled.
To hit (a ship) in the hull with cannon fire etc.

Origin

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 Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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