KJV Dictionary Definition: peel

peel

PEEL, v.t. L. pilo, to pull off hair and to pillage; pilus, the hair.

1. To strip off skin, bark or rind without a cutting instrument; to strip by drawing or tearing off the skin; to bark; to flay; to decorticate. When a knife is used, we call it paring. Thus we say, to peel a tree, to peel an orange; but we say, to pare an apple to pare land.

2. In a general sense, to remove the skin, bark or rind, even with an instrument.

3. To strip; to plunder; to pillage; as, to peel a province or conquered people.

PEEL, n. L. pellis. The skin or rind of any thing; as the peel of an orange.

PEEL, n. L. pala; pello; Eng. shovel, from shove; or from spreading. A kind of wooden shovel used by bakers, with a broad palm and long handle; hence, in popular use in America, any large fire-shovel.

peeled

PEE'LED, pp. Stripped of skin, bark or rind; plundered; pillaged.

peeling

PEE'LING, ppr. Stripping off skin or bark; plundering.