peel

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
peel1

▶verb

• 1 remove the outer covering or skin from (a fruit, vegetable, etc.).

• 2 (of a surface) lose parts of its outer layer or covering in small strips or pieces.

  ■ come off in strips or small pieces.

• 3 (peel something away/off) remove a thin outer covering.

  ■ (peel something off) remove an article of clothing.

• 4 (peel off) leave a group by veering away.

  ■ (peel out) N. Amer. informal leave quickly.

▶noun

• 1 the outer covering or rind of a fruit or vegetable.

• 2 an act of exfoliating dead skin in the cosmetic treatment of microdermabrasion.

– derivatives
peelable adjective,
peelings plural noun.

– origin ME (in the sense ‘to plunder’): var. of dial. pill, from L. pilare ‘to strip hair from’, from pilus ‘hair’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
peel2

▶noun archaic a shovel, especially a baker's shovel for carrying loaves into or out of an oven.

– origin ME: from OFr. pele, from L. pala, from the base of pangere ‘to fix’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
peel3 (also pele or peel tower)

▶noun a small square defensive tower of a kind built in the 16th century in the border counties of England and Scotland.

– origin prob. short for synonymous peel-house: peel from Anglo-Norman Fr. pel ‘stake, palisade’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
peel4

▶verb Croquet send (another player's ball) through a hoop.

– origin C19: from the name of Walter H. Peel, founder of the All England Croquet Association.