Shell of an Egg

After an egg in the shell has been eaten, many persons break or crush the empty shell. Sir Thomas Brown says this was done originally, “to prevent house-spirits from using the shell for their mischievous pranks.” (Book v., chap. xxiii.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.