peel

• POS: Noun, Verb (intransitive), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

peel, n. [OE. pel. Cf. Pile a heap.].

 A small tower, fort, or castle; a keep.  [1913 Webster]

peel, n. [F. pelle, L. pala.].

 A spadelike implement, variously used, as for removing loaves of bread from a baker's oven; also, a T-shaped implement used by printers and bookbinders for hanging wet sheets of paper on lines or poles to dry. Also, the blade of an oar.  [1913 Webster]

peel, v. t. [Confused with peel to strip, but fr. F. piller to pillage. See Pill to rob, Pillage.].

 To plunder; to pillage; to rob.  [1913 Webster]
"But govern ill the nations under yoke,
Peeling their provinces."  [1913 Webster]

peel, v. t. [F. peler to pull out the hair, to strip, to peel, fr. L. pilare to deprive of hair, fr. pilus a hair; or perh. partly fr. F. peler to peel off the skin, perh. fr. L. pellis skin (cf. Fell skin). Cf. Peruke.].

•  To strip off the skin, bark, or rind of; to strip by drawing or tearing off the skin, bark, husks, etc.; to flay; to decorticate; as, to peel an orange.  [1913 Webster]

  "The skillful shepherd peeled me certain wands."  [1913 Webster]
•  To strip or tear off; to remove by stripping, as the skin of an animal, the bark of a tree, etc.  [1913 Webster]

peel, v. i. 

•  To lose the skin, bark, or rind; to come off, as the skin, bark, or rind does; -- often used with an adverb; as, the bark peels easily or readily.  [1913 Webster]
•  To strip naked; to disrobe. Often used with down .  [PJC]

peel, n. 

 The skin or rind; as, the peel of an orange.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

peel, v. & n.
--v.
1 tr. a strip the skin, rind, bark, wrapping, etc. from (a fruit, vegetable, tree, etc.). b (usu. foll. by off) strip (skin, peel, wrapping, etc.) from a fruit etc.
2 intr. a (of a tree, an animal's or person's body, a painted surface, etc.) become bare of bark, skin, paint, etc. b (often foll. by off) (of bark, a person's skin, paint, etc.) flake off.
3 intr. (often foll. by off) colloq. (of a person) strip for exercise etc.
4 tr. Croquet send (another player's ball) through the hoops.
--n. the outer covering of a fruit, vegetable, prawn, etc.; rind.

Idiom

peel off
1 veer away and detach oneself from a group of marchers, a formation of aircraft, etc.
2 colloq. strip off one's clothes.

Derivative

peeler n. (in sense 1 of v.).

peel, n. a shovel, esp. a baker's shovel for bringing loaves etc. into or out of an oven.

peel, n. (also pele) hist. a small square tower built in the 16th c. in the border counties of England and Scotland for defence against raids.

Etymology

ME pel stake, palisade, f. AF & OF pel f. L palus stake: cf. PALE(2)

THESAURUS

peel

abscind, acropolis, amputate, annihilate, ban, bar, bark, bastion, beachhead, blockhouse, bob, bran, bridgehead, bunker, capsule, case, castle, chaff, citadel, clip, coat, coating, collop, cork, corn shuck, cornhusk, cortex, covering, crop, cull, cut, cut away, cut off, cut out, deal, decorticate, defoliate, denude, descale, desquamate, disk, dismember, disrobe, dock, donjon, draw and quarter, eliminate, enucleate, epicarp, eradicate, except, excise, exclude, excoriate, exfoliate, extinguish, extirpate, fasthold, fastness, feuille, film, flake off, flap, flay, foil, fold, fort, fortress, garrison, garrison house, hold, hull, husk, isolate, jacket, keep, knock off, lacerate, lamella, lamina, laminated glass, laminated wood, lap, leaf, lop, maim, mangle, martello, martello tower, membrane, mote, motte, mutilate, nip, palea, pane, panel, pare, patina, peel off, peel tower, peeling, pellicle, phellum, pick out, pick to pieces, pillbox, plait, plank, plate, plating, ply, plywood, pod, post, prune, pull apart, rasher, rath, rind, root out, rule out, safehold, safety glass, scale, scalp, scum, set apart, set aside, shave, shear, sheet, shell, shred, shuck, skin, slab, slat, slice, stamp out, strike off, strip, strip off, strong point, stronghold, table, tablet, take apart, take off, take out, tear apart, tear to pieces, tear to tatters, tower, tower of strength, truncate, uncovered, undress, veneer, wafer, ward, wipe out

ROGET THESAURUS

peel

Layer

N layer, stratum, strata, course, bed, zone, substratum, substrata, floor, flag, stage, story, tier, slab, escarpment, table, tablet, dess, flagstone, board, plank, trencher, platter, plate, lamina, lamella, sheet, foil, wafer, scale, flake, peel, coat, pellicle, membrane, film, leaf, slice, shive, cut, rasher, shaving, integument, eschar, stratification, scaliness, nest of boxes, coats of an onion, monolayer, bilayer, trilayer, lamellar, lamellated, lamelliform, layered, laminated, laminiferous, micaceous, schistose, schistous, scaly, filmy, membranous, pellicular, flaky, squamous, foliated, foliaceous, stratified, stratiform, tabular, discoid, spathic, spathose, trilamellar, graphitic.

VB slice, shave, pare, peel, delaminate, plate, coat, veneer, cover.

Covering

N covering, cover, baldachin, baldachino, baldaquin, canopy, tilt, awning, tent, marquee, tente d'abri, umbrella, parasol, sunshade, veil (shade), shield, roof, ceiling, thatch, tile, pantile, pentile, tiling, slates, slating, leads, barrack, plafond, planchment, tiling, shed, top, lid, covercle, door, operculum, bulkhead, bandage, plaster, lint, wrapping, dossil, finger stall, coverlet, counterpane, sheet, quilt, tarpaulin, blanket, rug, drugget, housing, antimacassar, eiderdown, numdah, pillowcase, pillowslip, linoleum, saddle cloth, blanket cloth, tidy, tilpah, apishamore, integument, tegument, skin, pellicle, fleece, fell, fur, leather, shagreen, hide, pelt, peltry, cordwain, derm, robe, buffalo robe, cuticle, scarfskin, epidermis, clothing, mask, peel, crust, bark, rind, cortex, husk, shell, coat, eggshell, glume, capsule, sheath, sheathing, pod, cod, casing, case, theca, elytron, elytrum, involucrum, wrapping, wrapper, envelope, vesicle, corn husk, corn shuck, dermatology, conchology, testaceology, inunction, incrustation, superimposition, superposition, obduction, scale, veneer, facing, overlay, plate, silver plate, gold plate, copper plate, engobe, ormolu, Sheffield plate, pavement, coating, paint, varnish, plating, barrel plating, anointing, enamel, epitaxial deposition, vapor deposition, ground, whitewash, plaster, spackel, stucco, compo, cerement, ointment, covering, superimposed, overlaid, plated, cutaneous, dermal, cortical, cuticular, tegumentary, skinny, scaly, squamous, covered, imbricated, loricated, armor plated, ironclad, under cover, cowled, cucullate, dermatoid, encuirassed, hooded, squamiferous, tectiform, vaginate.

Divestment

VB divest, uncover &c (cover), denude, bare, strip, disfurnish, undress, disrobe &c (dress, enrobe), uncoif, dismantle, put off, take off, cast off, doff, peel, pare, decorticate, excoriate, skin, scalp, flay, expose, lay open, exfoliate, molt, mew, cast the skin.