husk

husk
    n 1: material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of
         stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds
         [syn: {chaff}, {husk}, {shuck}, {stalk}, {straw},
         {stubble}]
    2: outer membranous covering of some fruits or seeds
    v 1: remove the husks from; "husk corn" [syn: {husk}, {shell}]
    

Husk \Husk\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Husked}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Husking}.]
   To strip off the external covering or envelope of; as, to
   husk Indian corn.
   [1913 Webster]
    

Husk \Husk\ (h[u^]sk), n. [Prob. for hulsk, and from the same
   root as hull a husk. See {Hull} a husk.]
   1. The external covering or envelope of certain fruits or
      seeds; glume; hull; rind; in the United States, especially
      applied to the covering of the ears of maize.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The supporting frame of a run of millstones.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Husks of the prodigal son} (Bot.), the pods of the carob
      tree. See {Carob}.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Husk
In Num. 6:4 (Heb. zag) it means the "skin" of a grape. In 2
Kings 4:42 (Heb. tsiqlon) it means a "sack" for grain, as
rendered in the Revised Version. In Luke 15:16, in the parable
of the Prodigal Son, it designates the beans of the carob tree,
or Ceratonia siliqua. From the supposition, mistaken, however,
that it was on the husks of this tree that John the Baptist fed,
it is called "St. John's bread" and "locust tree." This tree is
in "February covered with innumerable purple-red pendent
blossoms, which ripen in April and May into large crops of pods
from 6 to 10 inches long, flat, brown, narrow, and bent like a
horn (whence the Greek name keratia, meaning 'little horns'),
with a sweetish taste when still unripe. Enormous quantities of
these are gathered for sale in various towns and for
exportation." "They were eaten as food, though only by the
poorest of the poor, in the time of our Lord." The bean is
called a "gerah," which is used as the name of the smallest
Hebrew weight, twenty of these making a shekel.
    

103 Moby Thesaurus words for "husk":
      afterglow, afterimage, balance, bark, boll, bones, bran, burr,
      butt, butt end, candle ends, capsule, case, chaff, cod, corn shuck,
      cornhusk, culm, deadwood, debris, detritus, dishwater, draff,
      dregs, dust, end, fag end, filings, follicle, fossil, garbage,
      gash, hogwash, holdover, hull, husks, jacket, leavings, lees,
      leftovers, legume, legumen, odds and ends, offal, offscourings,
      orts, palea, parings, pease cod, peel, pericarp, pod, potsherds,
      rags, raspings, refuse, relics, remainder, remains, remnant,
      residue, residuum, rest, rind, roach, rubbish, ruins, rump,
      sawdust, scourings, scrap iron, scraps, scum, seed pod,
      seed vessel, seedbox, seedcase, shadow, shards, shavings, shell,
      shuck, silique, skin, slack, slag, slop, slops, slough, straw,
      stubble, stump, survival, sweepings, swill, tares, trace, vestige,
      wastage, waste, waste matter, wastepaper, weeds