pelting

Verb (1)

pelt (third-person singular simple present pelts, present participle pelting, simple past and past participle pelted)

1. (transitive) To remove the skin from (an animal); to skin.
   • Let us take a typical case of a mink farmer here in Connecticut who is being forced to throw in the sponge this coming fall. […] He pelts from 3500 to 4000 minks a year and has a huge investment of several thousand dollars tied up in his mink business.1967, James J. Critchley, “The Plight of the U.S. Mink Farmer”, in Import Quotas Legislation: Hearings before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Ninetieth Congress, First Session on...
2. (transitive) Chiefly followed by from: to remove (the skin) from an animal.
   • A gentleman (long agoe) lent him an old velvet ſaddle, […] [He] preſently untruſſeth, and pelts the out-ſide from the lining, […] with it he made him a caſe, or cover, for a dublet, which hath caſed and coverd his nakednes ever ſince: […]1596, Tho[mas] Nashe, “Dialogus”, in Haue with You to Saffron-Walden. Or, Gabriell Harveys Hunt is Up. […], London: […] John Danter, →OCLC; republished as J[ohn] P[ayne] C[ollier], editor, Have with...
3. (obsolete, rare, transitive) To remove feathers from (a bird).
   • A Man took an Eagle, Pelted her VVings, and put her among his Hens. Somebody came and bought This Eagle, and preſently Nevv-Feather'd her.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab[le] CVII. An Eagle and a Man.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page 101

Verb (2)

pelt (third-person singular simple present pelts, present participle pelting, simple past and past participle pelted)

1. (transitive) To bombard (someone or something) with missiles.
   • The children are pelting each other with snowballs.

   Synonyms:

   bethwack, bang, baste, batter, beat, belabor, blow, boom-boom, buffet, butt

2. (transitive) To force (someone or something) to move using blows or the throwing of missiles.
   • […] Martin survived […] to receive absolution from the very priest, whom, precisely on that day three years, he had assisted to pelt out of the hamlet of Morgenbrodt.1816, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in The Antiquary. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC...
3. (transitive) Of a number of small objects (such as raindrops), or the sun's rays: to beat down or fall on (someone or something) in a shower.
   • The chiding billovv ſeemes to pelt the cloudes, / The vvinde ſhak'd ſurge, vvith high and monſtrous mayne, / Seemes to caſt vvater, on the burning Beare, […]c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act...

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