verb. (common).—To undress; to strip.—GROSE (1785). Hence PEELED = naked: see NATURE’S GARB.
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, 13.
1821. W. T. MONCRIEFF, Tom and Jerry, I. Tom. Come Jerry, cast your skin—PEEL—slip into the swell case at once.
1827. REYNOLDS, (‘Peter Corcoran’), The Fancy, Note, 89. Randull’s figure is remarkable when PEELED for its statue like beaty.
1827. SCOTT, The Two Drovers, ii. Robin had not art enough even to PEEL before setting to, but fought with his plaid dangling about him.
1830. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford (1854), 256. You may call me an apple if you will, but I take it, I am not an apple you’d like to see PEELED.
1834. W. H. AINSWORTH, Rookwood, ‘The Double Cross,’ ii.
| They PEELED in style, and bets vere making, | |
| ’T vos six to four—but few were taking. |
1857. O. W. HOLMES, The Autocrat of Breakfast-Table, i. What resplendent beauty that must have been which could have authorised Phryne to PEEL in the way she did!
1885. The Field, 4 April. I got into bed, and under cover PEELED off, one by one, those pieces of clothing.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 20 Oct. She PEELED OFF her wedding dress and boots,… and threw them at him.
TO PEEL IT, verb. phr. (American).—To run at full speed.
TO PEEL EGGS, verb. phr. (common).—To stand on ceremony.
See KEEP.
