1. adverb. Late means near the end of a day, week, year, or other period of time. It was late in the afternoon. She had to work late at night. His autobiography was written late in life. The case is expected to end late next week. Since late last year the border area has been the scene of heavy fighting.
The cowry was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money. It is most abundant in the Indian Ocean, and was collected in the Maldive Islands, in Sri Lanka, along the Malabar coast, in Borneo and on other East Indian islands, and in various parts of the African coast from Ras Hafun to Mozambique.
Cultured freshwater pearls are pearls that are farmed and created using freshwater mussels. These pearls are produced in Japan and the United States on a limited scale, but are now almost exclusively produced in China.his mussel produced a high volume of low-quality pearls that came to be known as  Rice Krispie pearls in the 1970s and 1980s. More than a decade ago the freshwater pearl industry of China shifted production from the cockscomb pearl mussel to the triangle shell mussel (Hyriopsis cumingii).