peel¹ (pēl)
n.

1. The skin or rind of certain fruits and vegetables.
2. A chemical peel.

v., peeled, peel·ing, peels.

v.tr.

1. To strip or cut away the skin, rind, or bark from; pare.
2. To strip away; pull off: peeled the label from the jar.

v.intr.

1. To lose or shed skin, bark, or other covering.
2. To come off in thin strips or pieces, as bark, skin, or paint: Her sunburned skin began to peel.
3. Slang. To remove one's clothes; undress.

phrasal verb:

peel off

1. To leave flight formation in order to land or make a dive. Used of an aircraft.
2. To leave or depart.

[From Middle English pilen, pelen, to peel, from Old French peler, and Old English pilian (both from Latin pilāre, to deprive of hair , from pilus, hair) and from Old French pillier, to tug, pull, plunder (from Latin pilleum, felt cap).]

peel² (pēl)
n.

1. A long-handled, shovellike tool used by bakers to move bread or pastries into and out of an oven.
2. Printing. A T-shaped pole used for hanging up freshly printed sheets of paper to dry.

[Middle English, from Old French pele, from Latin pāla, spade, peel.]

peel³ (pēl)
n.
A fortified house or tower of a kind constructed in the borderland of Scotland and England in the 16th century.

[Middle English pel, stake, small castle, from Anglo-Norman, stockade, variant of Old French, stake, from Latin pālus.]

---

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

---