How to Use shale in a Sentence

shale

noun
Definition of shalenext
  • This is not to say that the current shale boom was the result of high prices in the 2000s.
    — Michael Lynch, Forbes, 17 May 2022
  • The doctor’s horse, Puffer, slipped on the shale and slid about 10 feet down the mountain.
    — Ed Wiseman, Outdoor Life, 13 Feb. 2023
  • That push has stunted growth in all but one of the oil fields that fueled the shale boom.
    — Benoit Faucon, WSJ, 17 Oct. 2021
  • That makes shale a very attractive bet in the post-Covid world.
    — Dan Eberhart, Forbes, 20 Mar. 2021
  • Barb trips on some loose shale and tumbles into the canyon.
    — Colin Nissan, The New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2021
  • My brown daughter by the slate-gray sea puts broken shells and bits of shale in stacks.
    — Kelly Scott Franklin, National Review, 17 Feb. 2022
  • By 2019, the shale boom had made the U.S. not just the world's top consumer of oil, but the world's largest producer, as well.
    — Katherine Dunn, Fortune, 4 Nov. 2020
  • The deal involves oil assets in the northern part of the Eagle Ford shale basin in South Texas.
    — Benoît Morenne, WSJ, 21 Feb. 2023
  • And most of the increase has occurred since 2005, when shale-gas came onstream.
    — Ian Palmer, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2021
  • Under this technique, drillers bore through thousands of feet of earth to reach the shale.
    — Timothy Puko, WSJ, 8 Oct. 2020
  • Riverstone Holdings LLC rode the shale boom to big profits.
    — Ryan Dezember, WSJ, 26 Aug. 2021
  • That means shale could once again come to the rescue if high oil prices become an issue.
    — Dan Eberhart, Forbes, 6 Dec. 2021
  • But Somers was surprised at how easily the shale gave way.
    — Popular Mechanics, 14 Apr. 2023
  • The way to read the deal is as a bet on U.S. shale fracking and hedge against the left’s anti-fossil fuels policies.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 11 Oct. 2023
  • Above that aquifer and a layer of shale lies an upper aquifer in the Hopi mesas called the Toreva Sandstone Aquifer.
    — Ian James, AZCentral.com, 7 Dec. 2020
  • Few of the shale boom’s sideshows have flamed out quite like Wisconsin’s Northern White sand.
    — Alexander Osipovich, WSJ, 8 Oct. 2020
  • The shale boom transformed the U.S. from a net importer to a net exporter of petroleum and gas.
    — Christopher M. Matthews, WSJ, 30 July 2022
  • Frackers struggled to turn a profit amid the shale boom’s drilling frenzy.
    — Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 10 Feb. 2022
  • That would be a win-win for shale and American consumers.
    — Dan Eberhart, Forbes, 6 Dec. 2021
  • Each cell starts as a hole in the ground lined with a clay-like substance made from shale and a sturdy plastic liner.
    — Natalie Wallington, Kansas City Star, 22 Apr. 2024
  • The path was simply a horizontal shelf of the shale and limestone bedrock, maybe eight feet wide.
    — Rolling Stone, 13 Oct. 2021
  • The shale wells will return someday, when another boom roars through the oil patch.
    — Richard Mason, Arkansas Online, 20 Sep. 2020
  • Our region made the misstep of putting too many eggs in the shale and the petrochemical basket.
    — Bill McKibben, The New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2021
  • This shift reflects the rise of shale, which made the United States the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas in 2012.
    — Matt Egan, CNN, 8 Oct. 2020
  • Now, as oil and gas prices surge again, private shale drilling and fracking are leading a rebound in oil and gas drilling.
    — New York Times, 13 Oct. 2021
  • Gray shale interspersed with lichen, near a steep rushing mountain stream, hid the birds well.
    — Steve Meyer, Anchorage Daily News, 2 Oct. 2022
  • Despite that, the prices of some shale plays has held up, the Houston Chronicle reports.
    — From Usa Today Network and Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 27 Nov. 2020
  • At the time, drilling was pushing into the Utica shale formation.
    — Eric Heisig, cleveland, 19 Mar. 2022
  • Old coal and natural gas plants have lingered even as a wave of big new gas plants were built with the shale boom in the previous decade.
    — Naureen S. Malik, oregonlive, 24 Dec. 2022
  • Fracking reduced the total number of birds counted in near shale and oil production sites by 15%.
    — Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY, 4 Feb. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shale.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: