Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Peel

Peel (pēl), n. [OE. pel. Cf. Pile a heap.] A small tower, fort, or castle; a keep. [Scot.]

Peel, n. [F. pelle, L. pala.] A spadelike implement, variously used, as for removing loaves of bread from a baker's oven; also, a T-shaped implement used by printers and bookbinders for hanging wet sheets of paper on lines or poles to dry. Also, the blade of an oar.

Peel, v. t. [Confused with peel to strip, but fr. F. piller to pillage. See Pill to rob, Pillage.] To plunder; to pillage; to rob. [Obs.]

But govern ill the nations under yoke, Peeling their provinces. Milton.

Peel, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Peeled; p. pr. & vb. n. Peeling.] [F. peler to pull out the hair, to strip, to peel, fr. L. pilare to deprive of hair, fr. pilus a hair; or perh. partly fr. F. peler to peel off the skin, perh. fr. L. pellis skin (cf. Fell skin). Cf. Peruke.] 1. To strip off the skin, bark, or rind of; to strip by drawing or tearing off the skin, bark, husks, etc.; to flay; to decorticate; as, to peel an orange.

The skillful shepherd peeled me certain wands. Shak.

2. To strip or tear off; to remove by stripping, as the skin of an animal, the bark of a tree, etc.

Peel, v. i. To lose the skin, bark, or rind; to come off, as the skin, bark, or rind does; — often used with an adverb; as, the bark peels easily or readily.

Peel, n. The skin or rind; as, the peel of an orange.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.