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   Peel

   /pēl/

   

   verb

   • 1. remove the outer covering or skin from (a fruit or vegetable): "she watched him peel an apple with deliberate care" Similar pareskintake the skin/rind offstripshavetrimflayhullshellhuskshucktechnical:decorticate
   • ▪ remove (the outer covering or skin) from a fruit or vegetable: "with a small knife, peel the skin from the ginger" Similar trim (off)peel offparestrip (off)shave (off)removetake off
   • ▪ (of a fruit or vegetable) have a skin that can be removed: "oranges that peel easily"
   • 2. (of a surface or object) lose parts of its outer layer or covering in small strips or pieces: "the walls are peeling" Similar flake (off)peel offcome off in layers/stripsblistertechnical:exfoliatedesquamate
   • ▪ (of an outer layer or covering) come off, especially in strips or small pieces: "paint was peeling from the shopfronts"

   noun

   • 1. the outer covering or rind of a fruit or vegetable.

   Word Origin Middle English (in the sense ‘to plunder’): variant of dialect pill, from Latin pilare ‘to strip hair from’, from pilus ‘hair’. The differentiation of peel and pill may have been by association with the French verbs peler ‘to peel’ and piller ‘to pillage’.

   Derivatives

   • 1. peelable adjective

   Scrabble Points: 6

   • P

     3

   • E

     1

   • E

     1

   • L

     1

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