peel

B2 Topic:Food & Drink

US /piːl/ See IPA manual

Homophones

peal /piːl/

Minimal pairs

Sounds like pill /ɪ/ vs /iː/

Freq #7191

Meanings

1

verb
To remove the skin or outer covering from a fruit or vegetable.

I sat by my sister's bed, peeling oranges for her.
2

verb
To come off in thin pieces, or to lose an outer layer in flakes.

I had been out in the sun too long, and my nose was starting to peel.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to remove the skin or outer... skin strip

2 verb · to come off in thin pieces,... flakeflake offpeel off

Word family

Forms peeledpeelingpeels

Derived forms overpeelpeel-and-sealpeel-housepeel-towerpeelabilitypeelablepeelerpeelhousepeeliepeellesspeeloutpeely

Etymology

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

pelen Middle English pilian Old English peler Old French pilo Latin

View etymology graph ->

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# peel

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /piːl/
**Frequency rank:** 7191

## Meanings
1. To remove the skin or outer covering from a fruit or vegetable.
2. To come off in thin pieces, or to lose an outer layer in flakes.

## Examples
- I sat by my sister's bed, peeling oranges for her.
- I had been out in the sun too long, and my nose was starting to peel.

## Derived Forms
- overpeel
- peel-and-seal
- peel-house
- peel-tower
- peelability
- peelable
- peeler
- peelhouse
- peelie
- peelless
- peelout
- peely

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: pelen
- Root: pilian
- Root: peler
- Root: pilo

## Etymology
From Middle English pelen, from Old English pilian and Old French peler, pellier; both from Latin pilō, pilāre (“to remove hair from, depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). Doublet of pill.

## AI Etymology
Peel comes from Middle English pelen, from Old English pilian and Old French peler, pellier; both from Latin pilō, pilāre (“to remove hair from, depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). Doublet of pill. Modern senses include to remove the skin or outer covering from a fruit or vegetable and to come off in thin pieces, or to lose an outer layer in flakes. The wider word family includes derivatives such as overpeel, peel-and-seal, peel-house, peel-tower, peelability, and peelable.

## Topics
- Food & Drink
- Plants & Agriculture

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peel

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