Definition of "carapace" [car•a•pace]

• Zoology A hard bony or chitinous outer covering, such as the fused dorsal plates of a turtle or the portion of the exoskeleton covering the head and thorax of a crustacean. (noun)
• A protective, shell-like covering likened to that of a turtle or crustacean: "He used to worry that Sarah would age the same way, develop the same brittle carapace” ( Anne Tyler). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "That's when that one claw grows really big and the main carapace grows into a very bulbous shape."
• "They get to about 50 cm in carapace length and have three low keels running the length of the carapace."
• "Soft-shell turtles actually do have a shell, called a carapace, that is not as hard as those on other turtles."