husk

Meanings

1. The dry, leafy or stringy exterior of certain vegetables or fruits, which must be removed before eating the meat inside.
2. Any form of useless, dried up, and subsequently worthless exterior of something.
3. The supporting frame of a run of millstones.

1. To remove husks from.

1. An infection in cattle caused by a species of Dictyocaulus or lungworm

1. To cough, clear one's throat.
2. To say huskily, to utter in a husky voice.

1. A surname.

Etymology

From Middle English huske, husk (“husk”). Perhaps from Old English *husuc, *hosuc (“little covering, sheath”), diminutive of hosu (“pod, shell, husk”), from Proto-West Germanic *hosā, from Proto-Germanic *husǭ (“covering, shell, leggings”), from Proto-Indo-European *kawəs- / kawes- (“cover”). If so, equivalent to hose + -ock. Alternatively from Middle Low German hûs(e)ken, hü̂seken (“little house, sheath”), Middle Dutch husekijn (“little house, core of fruit, case”), diminutive of hûs (“house”). Compare Dutch huisje, German Häuschen, both also used for “snailshell”.