pelt

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See also: Pelt

English[edit]

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Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English pelt, from Old French pelette, diminutive of pel (“a skin”), from Latin pellis. Alternatively a contraction of peltry (“skins”) from the same Old French and Latin roots. Norwegian pels, Norwegian belte

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /pɛlt/
  • Rhymes: -ɛlt
  • Audio (UK)(file)

Noun[edit]

pelt (plural pelts)

  1. The skin of a beast with the hair on; a raw or undressed hide; a skin preserved with the hairy or woolly covering on it.
    • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175:
      They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he 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. […].
  2. The body of any quarry killed by a hawk.
  3. (humorous) Human skin.
    • 1697, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in Virgil; John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 403869432:
      A scabby tetter on their pelts will stick.
    • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, Sydney: Ure Smith, published 1962, page 173:
      "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.'
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
body of quarry killed by a hawk
human skin — See also translations at skin

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English pelten, pilten, pulten, perhaps from Old English *pyltan.

Verb[edit]

pelt (third-person singular simple present pelts, present participle pelting, simple past and past participle pelted)

  1. (transitive) To bombard, as with missiles.
    They pelted the attacking army with bullets.
  2. (transitive) To throw; to use as a missile.
    The children pelted apples at us.
  3. (intransitive) To rain or hail heavily.
    It's pelting down out there!
    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, OCLC 932920499; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iv:
      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.
  4. (transitive) To beat or hit, especially repeatedly.
  5. (intransitive) To move rapidly, especially in or on a conveyance.
    The boy pelted down the hill on his toboggan.
    • 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      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.
  6. (intransitive, obsolete) To throw out words.
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

pelt (plural pelts)

  1. A blow or stroke from something thrown.
    • 2013, Karen-Anne Stewart, Healing Rain (page 134)
      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.

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

pelt

  1. second- and third-person singular present indicative of pellen
  2. (archaic) plural imperative of pellen
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