pelt

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points: 6
Words With Friends: 8
Letters: 4

Pronunciation

/pɛlt/

Definition of pelt

30 senses · 3 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

The skin of an animal with the hair or wool on; either a raw or undressed hide, or a skin preserved with the hair or wool on it (sometimes worn as a garment with minimal modification).

“Perhaps the reason why he [a stuffed fox] seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.”
“My people got themselves pelts and pelts—there was such a trapping as comes but few times in a life. Pelts and pelts, the silver and the grey—fine pelts.”

See all 30 definitions

noun

The skin of an animal with the hair or wool on; either a raw or undressed hide, or a skin preserved with the hair or wool on it (sometimes worn as a garment with minimal modification).

“Perhaps the reason why he [a stuffed fox] seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.”
“My people got themselves pelts and pelts—there was such a trapping as comes but few times in a life. Pelts and pelts, the silver and the grey—fine pelts.”
(also, figuratively)The skin of an animal (especially a goat or sheep) with the hair or wool removed, often in preparation for tanning.
The fur or hair of a living animal.

“Near-synonym: coat”
“The Cauſes and the Signs ſhall next be told, / Of ev'ry Sickneſs that infects the Fold [of sheep]. / A ſcabby Tetter on their pelts vvill ſtick, / VVhen the ravv Rain has pierc'd 'em to the quick: […]”
(Ireland, humorous, informal)Human skin, especially when bare; also, a person's hair.

“Put on your dress, ye shameless witch, standin' there in your pelt I'll take a strap to, for havin' the conceit out of you, for by your idling had lost me the sup of gin to keep the breath of life in me. Cover your scut, or I'll welt the skin off it.”
(obsolete)A garment made from animal skins.
(obsolete)The body of any quarry killed by a hawk; also, a dead bird given to a hawk for food.

“If two [hawks] are flown they are certain to fell the game at once, and the falconer is always flurried by their violent propensity to crab over the "pelt."”
(transitive)A beating or falling down of hailstones, rain, or snow in a shower.

“[D]azed and blinded, she bent her head as if to let the pelt of jagged hail, the drench of dirty water, bespatter her unrebuked.”
“Kas is awakened by the furious pelts of rain hitting the tin roof, and he rolls over, pulling his sleeping wife tightly into his arms.”
(transitive)A blow or stroke from something thrown.

“[T]he cripple, in falling, gave him ſuch a good pelt on the head vvith his crutch, that the blood follovved.”
(figuratively, transitive)A verbal insult; a jeer, a jibe, a taunt.
(figuratively, transitive)A fit of anger; an outburst, a rage.

“The pope [Innocent IV] being in this pelt, Ægidus, a Spanish cardinal, thus interposed his gravity: […]”
(transitive)An act of moving quickly; a rush.

“It's a good day off us anyhow, and they're all going south-west by south full pelt as hard as they can go.”
(Scotland, transitive)A tattered or worthless piece of clothing; a rag.
(Scotland, broadly, transitive)Anything in a ragged and worthless state; rubbish, trash.
(historical, obsolete, rare, transitive)Alternative form of pelta.
(obsolete, rare, transitive)Alternative form of pelta.

verb

(transitive)To remove the skin from (an animal); to skin.

“Let us take a typical case of a mink farmer here in Connecticut who is being forced to throw in the sponge this coming fall. […] He pelts from 3500 to 4000 minks a year and has a huge investment of several thousand dollars tied up in his mink business.”
(transitive)Chiefly followed by from: to remove (the skin) from an animal.

“A gentleman (long agoe) lent him an old velvet ſaddle, […] [He] preſently untruſſeth, and pelts the out-ſide from the lining, […] with it he made him a caſe, or cover, for a dublet, which hath caſed and coverd his nakednes ever ſince: […]”
(obsolete, rare, transitive)To remove feathers from (a bird).

“A Man took an Eagle, Pelted her VVings, and put her among his Hens. Somebody came and bought This Eagle, and preſently Nevv-Feather'd her.”
(transitive)To bombard (someone or something) with missiles.

“The children are pelting each other with snowballs.”
“They pelted the attacking army with bullets.”
“Pope Lucius [II] being also amongst thē in the fight, well pelted with stones and blowes liued not long after.”
“[T]hey ſtood pelting us from the Shore vvith Darts and Arrovvs; […]”
“He pelteth old gentlemen driving four-wheeled chaises with snuff-boxes, and distributeth pincushions to the domestics, breaking windows withal.”
(transitive)To force (someone or something) to move using blows or the throwing of missiles.

“[…] Martin survived […] to receive absolution from the very priest, whom, precisely on that day three years, he had assisted to pelt out of the hamlet of Morgenbrodt.”
“Presently, sweetened by distance, would be heard the wild weird song of lads and lasses, driving or rather pelting, through the gloaming their sheep and goats; […]”
“So he was pelted out of the coram populo, was he?”
(transitive)Of a number of small objects (such as raindrops), or the sun's rays: to beat down or fall on (someone or something) in a shower.

“The chiding billovv ſeemes to pelt the cloudes, / The vvinde ſhak'd ſurge, vvith high and monſtrous mayne, / Seemes to caſt vvater, on the burning Beare, […]”
“Ile ſtand this ſtorm of hail though the ſtones pelt me.”
“They had gone but a fevv ſteps, before there came a violent ſhovver of hail; and the vvind, vvhich vvas very high, being immediately in their faces, Cecilia vvas ſo pelted and incommoded, that ſhe vvas frequently obliged to ſtop, in defiance of her utmoſt efforts to force herſelf forvvard.”
“On sleeping, I continued in dreams the idea of a dark and gusty night. […] [T]otal obscurity environed me; rain pelted me; […]”
“The sun so pelted us that the tears ran down our cheeks once or twice.”
(transitive)Chiefly followed by at: to (continuously) throw (missiles) at.

“The children pelted apples at us.”
“[I]n his Paroxyſms, as he vvalked the Streets, he vvould have his Pockets loaden vvith Stones, to pelt at the Signs.”
“Will someone hand me anything hard and bruising to pelt at her?”
(dialectal, transitive)To repeatedly beat or hit (someone or something).
(figuratively, transitive)To assail (someone) with harsh words in speech or writing; to abuse, to insult.

“I have […] had the honour to be pelted with several epistles to expostulate with me on that subject.”
“They don't knovv hovv to go about their abuſe. VVho vvill read a five ſhilling book againſt me? No, Sir, if they had vvit, they ſhould have kept pelting me vvith pamphlets.”
(intransitive, transitive)Especially of hailstones, rain, or snow: to beat down or fall forcefully or heavily; to rain down.

“It’s pelting down out there!”
“Accurſt be he that firſt inuented war, / They knew not, ah, they knew not ſimple men, / How thoſe were hit by pelting Cannon ſhot, / Stand ſtaggering like a quiuering Aſpen leafe, / Fearing the force of Boreas boiſtrous blaſts.”
“Ever let the Fancy roam, / Pleasure never is at home: / At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth, / Like to bubbles when rain pelteth; […]”
“Thou peltest fast with icy show'r, / Which surely cannot please one; / The wind too has such boist'rous pow'r, / 'Tis quite enough to freeze one.”
“On deck, all was dark as a pocket, and either a dead calm, with the rain pouring steadily down, or, more generally, a violent gale dead ahead, with rain pelting horizontally, and occasional variations of hail and sleet;— […]”
(figuratively, intransitive, transitive)To move rapidly, especially in or on a conveyance.

“I pelted across to where my family was sitting.”
“The bus went pelting down the hill.”
“The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas-eve, and then ran home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman's-buff.”
“Spring, is ye comen in, / Dappled larke singe, / Snow melteth, / Runnel pelteth, / Smelleth wind of newe buddinge.”
“While we choose and buy our purchases with mere inch-wide movements of our thumbs, they are busy rearranging the physical world so that our deliveries pelt towards us in ever-quicker time.”
(also, archaic, figuratively, intransitive, transitive)Chiefly followed by at: to bombard someone or something with missiles continuously.

“The Biſhop, and the Duke of Gloſters men, / Forbidden late to carry any VVeapon, / Haue fill'd their Pockets full of peeble ſtones; / And banding themſelues in contrary parts, / Doe pelt ſo faſt at one anothers Pate.”
“[T]heſe light armed refuters vvould have don pelting at thir three lines utterd vvith a ſage delivery of no reaſon, but an impotent and vvors then Bonner-like cenſure, […]”
“Arch-biſhop [John] VVhitgifts [prelates], much Pen-perſecuted, and pelted at vvith Libellous Pamphlets, but ſupported by Queen Elizabeths Zeal to maintain the Diſcipline etabliſhed, […]”
(intransitive, obsolete, transitive)To throw out harsh words; to show anger.

“[S]he [the church] holdeth the veritie of his bodie [i.e., Jesus's body in the Eucharist]: ſhe pelteth not vvith God, denying this to be his body, bicauſe ſhe is cōmaunded to do this in remembrãce of hym: but ſhe doth beſt remembre hym, vvhen ſhe hath the bodie vvhich ſuffered, before her.”
“Another ſmotherd, ſeemes to pelt and ſvveare, / And in their rage ſuch ſignes of rage they beare, […]”
“But if they vvho diſſent in matters not eſſential to Belief, vvhile the common Adverſary is in the Field, ſhall ſtand jarring and pelting at one another, they vvill ſoon be routed and ſubdued.”
(intransitive, obsolete, transitive)To bargain for a better deal; to haggle.

name

A surname.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

See full etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English pelt (“skin of a sheep, especially without the wool”); further etymology uncertain, possibly: * from Middle English pellet (“skin of an animal, especially a sheep”), from Anglo-Norman pelette, pellet, and Old French pelete, pelette (“thin layer, film, skin; epidermis; foreskin”), from pel (“skin; garment made of animal skin, pelisse”) (from Latin pellis (“animal skin, hide, pelt; leather; garment made of animal skin”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to cover; to wrap; hide; skin; cloth”)) + -ete (diminutive suffix); or * from Late Latin peletta, pelleta, pelletta (“skin of an animal, especially a sheep”). The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates * Norwegian Bokmål pels (“fur; fur coat”) * Norwegian Nynorsk pels (“fur; fur coat”)