shuck
/ʃʌk
/chiefly North American
noun
1An outer covering such as a husk or pod, especially the husk of an ear of maize.Regional fuels like steam from the deep Earth or excess corn shucks will enter custom-designed micropower plants for local feeds to the microgrid....
- The knife used to cut shucks of corn and associated with Lena Lingard.
1.1The shell of an oyster or clam.
1.2The integument of certain insect pupae or larvae.
2 informal A person or thing regarded as worthless or contemptible: he said the idea was a shuck
exclamation (shucks) informal
Used to express surprise, regret, irritation, or, in response to praise, self-deprecation: ‘Thank you for getting it.’ ‘Oh, shucks, it was nothing.’...See also aw-shucks.
- Oh, shucks, and here I was thinking that was you.
- ‘Aw, shucks,’ he may suddenly say, as the discussions on global warming drag on, ‘why don't we all just go out and hit the greens?’
- Moni-chan smiled and shrugged in a way that said ‘aw, shucks.’
verb [with object]
1Remove the shucks from maize or shellfish: shuck and drain the oysters...
- This dish contains oysters shucked and drained and wrapped in bacon slices and baked for 10 minutes in a hot oven.
- She spent her entire life shucking oysters at her mam and dad's Whitstable seafood parlour.
- Meanwhile, seafood restaurants such as Shuckers draw in custom by shucking oysters non-stop in the front window.
1.1 informal Take off (a garment): she shucked off her nightdress and started dressing...
- Patty Lou always kept her cafe a little on the warm side, a subtle invitation to her customers to shuck their coats and settle themselves for a nice, long, and leisurely meal.
- The guys shucked off their clothes with little thought to modesty, causing Danny's face to redden as she averted her gaze.
- He wandered to the edge of the water and shucked off his clothes.
1.2 informal Abandon; get rid of: the regime’s ability to shuck off its totalitarian characteristics...
- Freed from Middle America, her focus shifted to New York's literary society, where two women hold a torch for the celebrity novelist who has shucked them off.
- Now living on five bucolic acres in Township, Ohio, Eszterhas is a changed man, having shucked the glitz and booze for daily five-mile walks and more time with his four young sons.
- The hurried yells of the seaman brought Blaine's head up, and induced his head to lazily drift upwards, towards a large raft that had been shucked out to the bow.
2 informal Cause (someone) to believe something that is not true; fool or tease: they have enough psychology to know whether you’re shucking them or whether you’re being honest [no object]: I don’t need you shucking and jiving about my girl’s name
Derivatives
shucker
- Their seed shucker checks out a field to see if it's worth harvesting and what the seed purity or mix will be.
- The cups held up to one gallon of oysters and shuckers could shuck between two and four thousand oysters in a days time.
- Originally built as a private home, the hall was purchased by an all-black society of oyster shuckers in 1921 and moved to a tract on the old Maryfield Plantation, where it was used as a society hall.
Origin
Late 17th century: of unknown origin.