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Webster 1913 Edition

Peel

Peel

(pēl)
,
Noun.
[OE.
pel
. Cf.
Pile
a heap.]
A small tower, fort, or castle; a keep.
[Scot.]

Peel

,
Noun.
[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.

Peel

,
Verb.
T.
[Confused with
peel
to strip, but fr. F.
piller
to pillage. See
Pill
to rob,
Pillage
.]
To plunder; to pillage; to rob.
[Obs.]
But govern ill the nations under yoke,
Peeling
their provinces.
Milton.

Peel

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Peeled
(pēld)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Peeling
.]
[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
.]
1.
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
.
The skillful shepherd
peeled
me certain wands.
Shakespeare
2.
To strip or tear off; to remove by stripping, as the skin of an animal, the bark of a tree, etc.

Peel

,
Verb.
I.
1.
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
.

Peel

,
Noun.
The skin or rind;
as, the
peel
of an orange
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Peel

PEEL

,
Verb.
T.
[L. pilo, to pull off hair and to pillage; pilus, the hair.]
1.
To strip off skin, bark or rind without a cutting instrument; to strip by drawing or tearing off the skin; to bark; to flay; to decorticate. When a knife is used, we call it paring. Thus we say, to peel a tree, to peel an orange; but we say, to pare an apple to pare land.
2.
In a general sense, to remove the skin, bark or rind, even with an instrument.
3.
To strip; to plunder; to pillage; as, to peel a province or conquered people.

PEEL

,
Noun.
[L. pellis.] The skin or rind of any thing; as the peel of an orange.

PEEL

,
Noun.
[L. pala; pello; Eng. shovel, from shove; or from spreading.] A kind of wooden shovel used by bakers, with a broad palm and long handle; hence, in popular use in America, any large fire-shovel.

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