Word.ws English Dictionary

peel

/piːl/

peel verb: to remove the skin or outer covering of. Also the alternative form of peal.

peel: to remove the skin or outer covering of
Image: Md. Asad-Uz-Zaman Shakil, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb (1)

peel (third-person singular simple present peels, present participle peeling, simple past and past participle peeled)

  1. (transitive) To remove the skin or outer covering of.
    • I sat by my sister's bed, peeling oranges for her.
    • 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]...
    Synonyms:
    skin, strip, desquamate
  2. (transitive) To remove something from the outer or top layer of.
    • I peeled (the skin from) a banana and ate it hungrily.
    • We peeled the old wallpaper off in strips where it was hanging loose.
  3. (intransitive) To become detached, come away, especially in flakes or strips; to shed skin in such a way.
    • I had been out in the sun too long, and my nose was starting to peel.
  4. (intransitive) To remove one's clothing.
    • The children peeled by the side of the lake and jumped in.
    Synonyms:
    disrobe, strip
  5. (intransitive) To move, separate (off or away).
    • The scrum-half peeled off and made for the touchlines.

Noun (1)

peel (countable and uncountable, plural peels)

  1. (uncountable, usually) The skin or outer layer of a fruit, vegetable, etc.
    Synonyms:
    rind, zest
  2. (countable) The action of peeling away from a formation.
  3. (countable) A cosmetic preparation designed to remove dead skin or to exfoliate.

Noun (2)

peel (plural peels)

  1. (obsolete) A stake.
  2. (obsolete) A fence made of stakes; a stockade.
  3. (archaic) A small tower, fort, or castle; a keep.

Noun (3)

peel (plural peels)

  1. A shovel or similar instrument, now especially a pole with a flat disc at the end used for removing pizza or loaves of bread from a baker's oven.
    • Near-synonym: pizza paddle
    • “I will hit you with this pizza peel.” “I'll hit you with this wrench.” “All right, all right, I know we want to hit each other to death, but what if we didn't?” “Not happening, Green. There's enough peel here for you and the captain.”2026 June 5, Justin Michael, “I'm Just Venting” (3:25 from the start), in Among Us, season 1, episode 9, spoken by Purple (Ashley Johnson)
  2. A T-shaped implement used by printers and bookbinders for hanging wet sheets of paper on lines or poles to dry.
  3. (US, archaic) The blade of an oar.

Noun (4)

peel (plural peels)

  1. (Scotland) An equal or match; a draw.
  2. A takeout which removes a stone from play as well as the delivered stone.

Verb (2)

peel (third-person singular simple present peels, present participle peeling, simple past and past participle peeled)

  1. To play a peel shot.

Verb (3)

peel (third-person singular simple present peels, present participle peeling, simple past and past participle peeled)

  1. (croquet) To send through a hoop (of a ball other than one's own).

Verb (4)

peel (third-person singular simple present peels, present participle peeling, simple past and past participle peeled)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To plunder; to pillage, rob.
    • 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...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...

Proper noun capitalized: Peel

Peel (countable and uncountable, plural Peels)

  1. (countable) A surname.
    • Robert Peel, former British Prime Minister.
  2. A town in the Isle of Man (OS grid ref SC2484).
  3. A former county in Ontario, Canada, abolished in 1974.
  4. A regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, created in 1974.
  5. A locality in the Bathurst council area, central eastern New South Wales, Australia.
  6. A region south of Perth, Western Australia.

Also used as

peel is also the alternative form of peal.

peel is also the misspelling of peal.

peel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu

peel in Hindi

to remove the outer layer
छीलना chīlnā
to remove skin
छीलना chīlnā
skin of a fruit
छिलका chilkā, छाल chāl

peel in Tamil

to remove the outer layer
உரி uri, தோலுரி tōluri
to remove skin
உரி uri, தோலுரி tōluri
to come away, especially in flakes or strips
உரி uri
to remove one's clothing
கழற்று kaḻaṟṟu

peel in Urdu

skin of a fruit
چھال chāl

peel in Telugu

skin of a fruit
తొక్క tokka
More languagesFewer languages
peel in Malayalam
തോൽ tōl
peel in Kannada
ಸಿಪ್ಪೆ ಸುಲಿಯಲು
peel in Punjabi
ਛਿੱਲ
peel in Gujarati
છોલવું cholvũ
peel in Assamese
বাকলি গুচোৱা bakoli gusüa, বখলিওৱা bokholiüa, ছেলোৱা selüa
peel in Nepali
छोल्नु cholnu
peel in Tagalog
talupan
peel in Arabic
قَشَّرَ qaššara, قِشْرَة qišra, قِشْر qišr
peel in Malay
kupas, kulit
peel in Persian
پوست pust
peel in Thai
ปอก bpɔ̀ɔk, เปลือก bplʉ̀ʉak
peel in Vietnamese
gọt, vỏ, bì
peel in Myanmar
အခွံ a.hkwam

Examples of peel in a sentence

  • You looked a fool when you slipped on a banana peel.
  • Since the mishap with the banana peel, he watches his step.
  • Keep an eye peeled, you never know when the ice-cream truck will pass by.

All 40 example sentences with peel

Synonyms of peel

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
  • Regional Municipality of Peel

All synonyms of peel

Forms of peel

Verb
third-person singular presentpeels
present participlepeeling
past participlepeeled
pastpeeled
Noun
pluralpeels

Past tense of peel: peeled

Plural of peel: peels

Origin of peel

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.

From Middle English peel, pele, from Anglo-Norman pel (compare modern French pieu), from Latin pālus (“stake”). Doublet of pole and pale.

From Middle English pele, from Old French pele (modern French pelle), from Latin pāla, from the base of plangō (“fix, plant”). Doublet of pala.

Words formed from peel

Phrases with peel

Words that rhyme with peel

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about peel

What does peel mean?
Peel means to remove the skin or outer covering of.
What is peel in Hindi?
Peel in Hindi is छीलना (chīlnā), छिलका (chilkā), छाल (chāl). See Peel meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is peel?
Peel can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce peel?
Peel is pronounced /piːl/.
What is the past tense of peel?
The past tense of peel is peeled.

Words near peel in the dictionary

  1. peeksies
  2. Peekskill
  3. peeksy
  4. peekytoe
  5. peekytoes
  6. peel
  7. peel away
  8. peel back the onion
  9. Peel en Maas
  10. peel me a grape
  11. peel off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: peel (page history and authors); Peel (page history and authors); peel (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); peel (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-peel.ogg.

Cite this entry: “peel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/peel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.