Peel Meaning
/piːl/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo remove the skin or outer covering of.
verbTo remove something from the outer or top layer of.
Sentence Examples
Lend me a knife with which to peel this pear.
I'll peel an orange for you.
Will you peel the potatoes for me?
CEFR Practice Quiz
To make a fruit salad, you first need to ____ the oranges with a knife.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He used a vegetable peeler to ____ the carrots before chopping them for the stew.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English pelen, from Old English pilian and Old French peler, pellier; both from Latin pilō, pilāre (“to remove hair from, depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). Doublet of pill.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The skillful shepherd peeled me certain wands."
— c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
"But govern ill the nations under yoke, / Peeling their provinces."
— 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 4:
"O conſider my caſe, moſt blisfull Queen, […] Diſpell thoſe Clouds which hover 'twixt my King and his higheſt Counſell, […] that my great Law-making Court be forced to turn no more to polemicall Committees, […] but that they may come again to the old Parliamentary Rode, To the path of their Predeceſſours, to conſult of means how to ſweep away thoſe Cobwebs that hang in the Courts of Juſtice, and to make the Laws run in their right Channell; to retrench exceſſive fees, and finde remedies for the future, that the poor Client be not ſo peeled by his Lawyer, and made to ſuffer by ſuch monſtrous delays, that one may go from one Tropick to the other, and croſſe the Equinoctiall twenty times, before his ſute be done; […]"
— 1645, James Howell, “England’s Tears, for the Present Wars, which for the Nature of the Quarrel, the Quality of the Strength, the Diversity of Battels, Skirmishes, Encounters, and Sieges, (Happened in so Short a Compasse of Time) Cannot be Parallel’d in Any Precedent Age”, in ΔΕΝΔΡΟΛΟΓΊΑ [DENDROLOGIA]: Dodona’s Grove, or The Vocall Forrest. The Third Edition More Exact and Perfect than the Former; with the Addition of Two Other Tracts: viz. Englands Tears for the Present Wars. And The Pre-eminence of Parlements, 3rd edition, Cambridge: Printed by R. D. for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his shop at the Prince's Arms in S. Pauls Church-yard, →OCLC, page 189:
"As the tiny Virgin... approaches one of the barrio churches, bells peel vigorously, a brass band launches into a fast-paced tune, and large rockets zoom... ."
— 2006, Miles Richardson, Being-In-Christ and Putting Death in Its Place, Louisiana State University Press, →ISBN, pages 230–231:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
To make a fruit salad, you first need to ____ the oranges with a knife.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He used a vegetable peeler to ____ the carrots before chopping them for the stew.