cowrie
- n any of numerous tropical marine gastropods of the genus Cypraea having highly polished usually brightly marked shells
- For this mother-to-be, Thompson created a design based on cowrie shells.
- The men may use the proceeds to buy cowrie shells, still the currency of choice in remote villages, which are then used to buy pigs, which in turn are used to buy wives.
- She told him it was a popular pastime for women and girls when she was growing up, and that she had played it with her aunts on wooden boards, using cowrie shells for dice.