peel
part of speech
verb (peel, peels, peeled, peeling); noun (peel)
meaning for a pupil
1) To peel is to take the skin off fruit or vegetables. tree →
2) The peel is the skin, like a banana peel or orange peel. tree →
3) To peel can mean that a thin layer comes off by itself: paint peels, skin peels after sunburn. tree →
4) To peel off a sticker is to pull it away. tree →
5) To peel can also mean to strip the bark off a tree or a stick. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: Jacob strips the bark from rods to make white streaks, as part of his plan with Laban's flocks. Interpretation: Commentators discuss this episode as Jacob's cleverness, but many say his success came from God's help and not from the rods. In the primary lessons: In maths: an action done to fruit; peels per minute; the weight of the peel taken away. In the kitchen: peeling potatoes and carrots with an adult. In science: skin peels after sunburn; old paint peels in the sun and rain. In stories: «Keep your eyes peeled» means watch carefully.
examples
- And Jacob took him rods of fresh poplar, and of the almond and of the plane-tree; and peeled white streaks in them, making the white appear which was in the rods. (Torah GEN.30.37, JPS 1917) tree →
- And he set the rods which he had peeled over against the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink; and they conceived when they came to drink. (Torah GEN.30.38, JPS 1917) tree →
- She peels 6 potatoes. tree →
- He peels 3 apples a minute. tree →
- The orange peel weighs 40 grams. tree →
- How many potatoes are peeled in 5 minutes? tree →
- Peel the banana before you eat it. tree →
- The paint on the old fence is peeling. tree →
- My nose peeled after the sunburn. tree →
- Peel off the sticker carefully. tree →
- Keep your eyes peeled for the bus. tree →
- He grasped the hatchet quickly to peel off the bark and shape the wood. tree →
note
Peeling at a speed is a rate: total = rate × time. Peel weight is taken away from the whole fruit. Trap: peeled potatoes are still the same number of potatoes. «Peel» (the skin) is usually uncountable. Homophone: peal (the ringing of bells). Safety: use a peeler carefully and ask an adult; a banana peel on the floor is slippery.
In the corpora
- Cork comes from the thick bark of the cork oak, peeled about every 9 years without killing the tree.
- Carving or peeling bark wounds a tree and lets in disease that can kill it.
- Oliver's nan calls police «bobbies» after Robert Peel, who set up London's police.
- If a blister bursts, leave the loose skin in place and cover it, rather than peeling it off.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «peel» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.