Found 1 items, similar to pear shell.
English → English (gcide) Definition: Pear shell Pear \Pear\ (p[^a]r), n. [OE. pere, AS. peru, L. pirum: cf. F. poire. Cf. Perry.] (Bot.) The fleshy pome, or fruit, of a rosaceous tree (Pyrus communis ), cultivated in many varieties in temperate climates; also, the tree which bears this fruit. See Pear family , below. [1913 Webster] Pear blight. (a) (Bot.) A name of two distinct diseases of pear trees, both causing a destruction of the branches, viz., that caused by a minute insect (Xyleborus pyri), and that caused by the freezing of the sap in winter. --A. J. Downing. (b) (Zo["o]l.) A very small beetle (Xyleborus pyri) whose larv[ae] bore in the twigs of pear trees and cause them to wither. Pear family (Bot.), a suborder of rosaceous plants (Pome[ae]), characterized by the calyx tube becoming fleshy in fruit, and, combined with the ovaries, forming a pome. It includes the apple, pear, quince, service berry, and hawthorn. Pear gauge (Physics), a kind of gauge for measuring the exhaustion of an air-pump receiver; -- so called because consisting in part of a pear-shaped glass vessel. Pear shell (Zo["o]l.), any marine gastropod shell of the genus Pyrula, native of tropical seas; -- so called from the shape. Pear slug (Zo["o]l.), the larva of a sawfly which is very injurious to the foliage of the pear tree. [1913 Webster] [1913 Webster]