Peeled

How to spell peeled

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce peeled

What does peeled mean?

1. verbRemoved the skin, rind, or outer covering from something.
2. adjectiveHaving had the skin or outer layer removed.

Peeled in a sentence

• verb

  She peeled the potatoes before boiling them for dinner.

• adjective

  The recipe calls for a tin of peeled tomatoes.

• verb

  He peeled the price sticker off the new book.

• adjective

  The market sells bags of peeled prawns ready to cook.

Where does peeled come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past tense of the verb 'peel', which came into English in the 1300s from the Old French verb 'peler', meaning 'to strip' or 'to remove the skin'. That French word descends from the Latin 'pilare', 'to remove hair', built on 'pilus', meaning 'a hair', and its sense was reinforced by the related Latin 'pellis', meaning 'skin' or 'hide'. The two Latin strands, hair and skin, both fed the idea of stripping off an outer covering, which is why we now peel an orange or peel off a label. Over time the everyday kitchen sense became dominant, though the older notion of laying something bare survives in phrases about paint peeling away. The double 'e' spelling matches the long vowel sound and helps keep it distinct from its homophone 'pealed', which refers to the loud ringing of bells.

How the word is built

• peel (to strip off an outer layer)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)