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peel

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The skin or outer layer of a fruit.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

peel
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpil

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. usually uncountable

    The skin or outer layer of a fruit, vegetable, etc.

  2. countable

    A cosmetic preparation designed to remove dead skin or to exfoliate.

  3. The rind of a fruit or vegetable

  4. A shovel or similar instrument, now especially a pole with a flat disc at the end used for removing pizza or loaves of bread from a baker's oven.

  5. A T-shaped implement used by printers and bookbinders for hanging wet sheets of paper on lines or poles to dry.

  6. British politician (1788-1850)

verb

  1. transitive

    To remove the skin or outer covering of.

  2. transitive

    To remove something from the outer or top layer of.

  3. intransitive

    To become detached, come away, especially in flakes or strips; to shed skin in such a way.

  4. intransitive

    To remove one's clothing.

  5. intransitive

    To move, separate (off or away).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The skin or outer layer of a fruit, vegetable, etc.

Used this way, peel is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use peel

  • “The paint in my house is peeling off.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Rind

orange peellemon peelbanana peel

Other combinations

peel commissionpeel strength

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • peelingnounInflected form

    Loss of bits of outer skin by peeling or shedding or coming off in scales.

  • peelernounInflected form

    A performer who provides erotic entertainment by undressing to music.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • peel offverbCompound term

    Peel off the outer layer of something.

  • keep one's eyes peeledverbCompound term

    Pay attention.

  • lemon peelnounCompound term

    The rind of a lemon.

  • orange peelnounCompound term

    The rind of an orange.

  • orange peel fungusnounCompound term

    A discomycete with bright orange cup-shaped or saucer-shaped fruiting bodies and pale orange exteriors.

  • potato peelnounCompound term

    Crisp fried potato peeling.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to remove the skin or outer covering of

parepeel offskin

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.