peel
noun/piːl/
/piːl/
- [uncountable, countable] the thick outer layer of some fruits and vegetables
- orange/lemon peel
- (North American English also) an orange/a lemon peel
- peels North American English(also peelings British and North American English)[plural] the skin of fruit or vegetables that has been removed
Word OriginMiddle English (in the sense ‘to plunder’): variant of dialect pill, from Latin pilare ‘to strip hair from’, from pilus ‘hair’. The differentiation of peel and pill may have been by association with the French verbs peler ‘to peel’ and piller ‘to pillage’.
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