Peeling

How to spell peeling

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce peeling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does peeling mean?

1. verbStripping the outer skin, rind, or covering from something, or having such a layer come away.
2. nounA strip of skin, rind, or surface layer that has been removed.

Peeling in a sentence

• verb

  She spent the morning peeling potatoes for the stew.

• noun

  She tossed the apple peeling into the compost bin.

• verb

  The old paint was peeling off the garden fence in long strips.

• noun

  A thin peeling of bark curled away from the birch trunk.

Where does peeling come from?

Language of origin: French

The word grows out of the verb 'peel', which English took from the Old French 'peler', meaning 'to strip off the skin or rind'. That French verb traces back to the Latin 'pilare', literally 'to remove the hair', built on 'pilus' meaning 'a hair'; the sense was reinforced by the closely related Latin 'pellis', meaning 'skin' or 'hide', so the modern idea of stripping away an outer covering sits comfortably between the two. By the medieval period English speakers were using 'peel' for taking the rind off fruit and bark off trees, and the '-ing' form naturally followed to name the ongoing action and the strips that come away. It is worth noting the spelling trap: 'peeling' (stripping a layer) sounds identical to 'pealing' (the loud ringing of bells), even though 'peal' has an entirely separate history connected to 'appeal'. Keeping the double 'ee' in mind helps fix that the word about skins and rinds is the one with two e's.

How the word is built

• peel (to strip off the outer layer)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)