tortoise-shell

tortoise-shell (usually uncountable, plural tortoise-shells)

1. Alternative form of tortoiseshell.

tortoise-shell (not comparable)

1. Alternative form of tortoiseshell.
   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter IV, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 67:

     The same nervous staccato laugh broke from her thin lips, and her fingers began to play with a long tortoise-shell paper-knife.