peel

UK/piːl/US/piːl/

verbB24 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,576 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: peeled, peeling, peels

Peel is taking the skin off something, with your fingers or a knife. You peel a banana on the bus, peel potatoes over the bin, peel the sticker off a new jar.

It works without an object as well: skin peels after sunburn, paint peels off a damp wall, wallpaper peels at the corner. As a noun, peel is the skin itself — orange peel, lemon peel grated into a cake. In a beauty salon a peel is a treatment that strips the top layer of skin off your face. Cars and planes peel off, meaning they break away from the line and turn. Keep your eyes peeled means stay alert, and has nothing to do with fruit. And watch the spelling: a peal is the ringing of bells.

Definitions of peel

1verbpeelTo take the skin or outer layer off something.B2
“She peeled the potatoes while the water came to the boil.”
- Said"Peel the potatoes for me while I sort the meat out."
- WrittenShe peeled the apple in one long spiral and hung it on the child's ear.
- UsedPeel the ginger with a spoon; it follows the bumps better than a knife.
- ContrastPeel, not cut. Cutting divides the whole thing; peeling only takes off the skin and leaves the rest. cut →
- Not thisSlicing a banana is not peeling it. Peel means the outside comes away and the inside stays.
- SimplyPeel the orange. Then eat it.
Patternpeel + noun (potatoes, an orange, garlic) · peel sth off / away · peeled and chopped · a peeler · peel (noun)
synonyms: skin, pare
2verbflakeTo come away from a surface in strips or flakes.B2
“The paint was peeling off the window frames in long strips.”
synonyms: flake
3nounrindThe skin of a fruit or vegetable, especially once it has come off.B1
“He dropped the orange peel straight into the bin.”
synonyms: rind, skin
4nounbeautyA beauty treatment that strips the top layer of skin from the face.C1
“She booked a chemical peel two weeks before the wedding.”

Remember it

PEEL → the skin somebody always slips on

Take the yellow skin off the fruit and drop it on the floor: in every old film, somebody steps on the peel and flies up into the air.

Phrases it lives in

keep your eyes peeled — stay alert and watch carefully for something
peel off — break away from a group or line and go a different way

Where it comes from

Peel began as hair removal. Latin pilus meant hair, and the verb pilo meant to strip the hair off something. That gave Old French peler and Old English pilian, which met in Middle English as pelen — and by then an apple's skin counted as much as an animal's hair. The word pill is its twin.

Latin
pilo — to remove hair from, depilate
Old French
peler
Old English
pilian
Middle English
pelen
English, today
peel

Built from

pilus · Latin — hair

From Middle English pelen, from Old English pilian and Old French peler, pellier; both from Latin pilo (“to remove hair from, depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). a doublet of pill.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Definitions of peel

1verbpeelTo take the skin or outer layer off something.B2

“She peeled the potatoes while the water came to the boil.”

Said"Peel the potatoes for me while I sort the meat out."
WrittenShe peeled the apple in one long spiral and hung it on the child's ear.
UsedPeel the ginger with a spoon; it follows the bumps better than a knife.
ContrastPeel, not cut. Cutting divides the whole thing; peeling only takes off the skin and leaves the rest. cut →
Not thisSlicing a banana is not peeling it. Peel means the outside comes away and the inside stays.
SimplyPeel the orange. Then eat it.

Patternpeel + noun (potatoes, an orange, garlic) · peel sth off / away · peeled and chopped · a peeler · peel (noun)

synonyms: skin, pare

2verbflakeTo come away from a surface in strips or flakes.B2

“The paint was peeling off the window frames in long strips.”

synonyms: flake

3nounrindThe skin of a fruit or vegetable, especially once it has come off.B1

“He dropped the orange peel straight into the bin.”

synonyms: rind, skin

4nounbeautyA beauty treatment that strips the top layer of skin from the face.C1

“She booked a chemical peel two weeks before the wedding.”