tear shell

[ teer ]

noun

1. tear bomb.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tear shell¹

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

Gas shell, musty with chloroform; sweet-scented tear shell that made your eyes run with water; high bursting shrapnel with black smoke and a vicious high explosive rattle behind its heavy pellets; ugly green bursts the colour of a fat silkworm; huge black clouds from the high explosive of his 5.9's.

From Project Gutenberg