shelly

shell +‎ -y

shelly (comparative shellier, superlative shelliest)

1. Composed of the shells of dead marine creatures
   • 2000 June 16, Karl W. Flessa, “Learning from the Dead”, in Science‎, volume 288, number 5473, DOI:10.1126/science.288.5473.1971a, pages 1971-1972:

     After all, we live today in an unusual world: sea level is low, the continents are dispersed, ice occupies the poles, and the shelly fauna of the oceans is composed largely of aragonite rather than calcite.

2. Resembling, or comprising, the shell of a mollusc
   • 1818, Charles Lamb, “On the Sight of Swans in Kensington Garden”, in The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb‎:

     Shrined are your offspring in a chrystal cradle, / Brighter than Helen's ere she yet had burst / Her shelly prison.

   • 1906, Harry Caulton Reeks, Diseases of the Horse's Foot‎:

     It is seen commonly in connection with flat-foot, and where the horn of the wall is thin and shelly.

3. Abounding with shells.
   • Prior

     the shelly shore

   • William Shakespeare

     Shrinks backward in his shelly cave.

• Hysell