peel

n. The skin or rind; as, the peel of an orange. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. pel. Cf. Pile a heap. ] A small tower, fort, or castle; a keep. [ Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

But govern ill the nations under yoke,
Peeling their provinces. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

The skillful shepherd peeled me certain wands. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To strip or tear off; to remove by stripping, as the skin of an animal, the bark of a tree, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To strip naked; to disrobe. Often used with down . [ nformal ] [ PJC ]

n. (Zool.) A graceful and swift South African antelope (Pelea capreola). The hair is woolly, and ash-gray on the back and sides. The horns are black, long, slender, straight, nearly smooth, and very sharp. Called also rheeboc, rhebuck, rhebok, and rehboc. [ 1913 Webster ]

pos>adj. Naked; -- used informally.
Syn. -- bare-assed, bare-ass, in the altogether, in the buff, in the raw, raw, naked as a jaybird, stark naked. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. One who peels or strips. [ 1913 Webster ]