A husk is the dry outer covering of certain seeds, grains, or fruits that protects what's inside but gets removed before eating. When you peel an ear of corn, those papery green layers you pull away are the husk. Rice grows inside a husk that must be removed at the mill. Coconuts have thick, fibrous husks surrounding their hard inner shells.

As a verb, to husk means to remove that outer covering. When you read about pioneers husking corn, they were pulling off those outer layers.

The word husk can also be used metaphorically to describe something that seems empty or hollowed out, like a husk of a building after a fire, suggesting that only the outer shell remains while everything important inside is gone. The word creates an image of something once whole and vital that's now just a dried-out covering.