[f. EGG sb. + SHELL.] The shell or external calcareous covering of an egg; often as a type of worthlessness or of fragility.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 577. He fondith to creope … Ageyn into the ay-schelle.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., VIII. in Ashm. (1652), 171. Fro Eggshells calcynyd.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 36. I gat not so muche … As … a poore egshell.
1599. H. Buttes, Dyets drie Dinner, To Rdr. I haue put into a by-dish (like Eg-shelles in a Saucer) what worthily may breed offence.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Prerog. Parl., 57. Without the Kings acceptation, both the publicke and priuate aduices be but as emptie Egg-shels.
1799. Hatchett, in Phil. Trans., LXXXIX. 328. The carbonate of lime exceeds in quantity the phosphate … in the egg shells of birds.
1859. Todd, Cycl. Anat., V. 63/1. The pores of the egg-shell may be easily stopped by any … oily matter.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 1213. He … babbled … How Enid never … cared a broken egg-shell for her lord.
b. attrib., chiefly similative. Egg-shell china: a porcelain ware of extreme thinness and delicacy.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, II. xix. 211. We … stepping into an egg-shell caique, crossed the Golden Horn.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, vii. Wks. (Bohn), II. 424. We come out of our egg-shell existence.
1861. C. P. Hodgson, Resid. at Nagasaki, 31. Fragile and sweetly pretty little egg-shell porcelain cups.
1887. Times, 11 Aug., 13/2. The egg-shell sides of the Mercury.
Hence Eggshell-ful, as a measure of quantity.
1460–70. Bk. Quintessence, 29. An eye-schelle ful of good brennynge water.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 73. Drink an egshelfull of the iuice of Betony.
1746. Berkeley, Sec. Let. Tar-water, § 14. An egg-shell full of tar.
1758. J. S., Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), 246–7. I found about an Egg-Shell full of purulent Serosity.
