Definition of "pelt"

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).  quotations  examples

(also figuratively) The skin of an animal (especially a goat or sheep) with the hair or wool removed, often in preparation for tanning.  examples

The fur or hair of a living animal.  quotations  examples

(chiefly Ireland, humorous, informal) Human skin, especially when bare; also, a person's hair.  quotations  examples

(obsolete)

1. A garment made from animal skins.  examples

2. (falconry) The body of any quarry killed by a hawk; also, a dead bird given to a hawk for food.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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."

     1852, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “A Day with the Bashah”, in Falconry in the Valley of the Indus, London: John Van Voorst, […], page 60

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

Chiefly followed by from: to remove (the skin) from an animal.  quotations  examples

(obsolete, rare) To remove feathers from (a bird).  quotations

(transitive)

1. To bombard (someone or something) with missiles.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Pope Lucius [II] being also amongst thē in the fight, well pelted with stones and blowes liued not long after.

     1563 March 30, John Foxe, “The Actes of Paschalis II. Bishop of Rome”, in Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], book I, page

   • [T]hey ſtood pelting us from the Shore vvith Darts and Arrovvs; […]

     1719, [Daniel Defoe], The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], page 223

   • He pelteth old gentlemen driving four-wheeled chaises with snuff-boxes, and distributeth pincushions to the domestics, breaking windows withal.

     1847, Arthur Smith, “Of the Gent who Goes to the Races”, in The Natural History of the Gent, London: David Bogue, […], page 48

   • [C]hildren pelting each other with handfuls of grass,— […]

     1927 May, Virginia Woolf, chapter 4, in To the Lighthouse (Uniform Edition of the Works of Virginia Woolf), new edition, London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, […], published 1930, part II (Time Passes), page 207

   • Standing again, he pelts Kyle in the stomach [with a snowball], who pelts Dad on the arm.

     2020 October, Christian Lauren [pseudonym; Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings], chapter 1, in In a Holidaze, New York, N.Y.: Gallery Books, page 8

2. To force (someone or something) to move using blows or the throwing of missiles.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • […] 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.

     1816, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in The Antiquary. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, page 83

   • 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; […]

     1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “The Translator’s Foreword”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume I, [London]: […] Burton Club […], page viii

   • So he was pelted out of the coram populo, was he?

     1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, part I, page 89

3. 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.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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, […]

     c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, [Act II, scene i], page 21

   • Ile ſtand this ſtorm of hail though the ſtones pelt me.

     1622 (first performance), Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, The Changeling: […], London: […] [Thomas Newcombe] for Humphrey Moseley, […], published 1653, Act II, signature [C4], verso

   • 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.

     1782, [Frances Burney], “A Sketch of High Life”, in Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. […], volume III, London: […] T[homas] Payne and Son […], and T[homas] Cadell […], book VI, pages 269–270

   • On sleeping, I continued in dreams the idea of a dark and gusty night. […] [T]otal obscurity environed me; rain pelted me; […]

     1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter X, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], page 268

   • The sun so pelted us that the tears ran down our cheeks once or twice.

     1869, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter LV, in The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims’ Progress; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company. […], page 597

4. Chiefly followed by at: to (continuously) throw (missiles) at.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [I]n his Paroxyſms, as he vvalked the Streets, he vvould have his Pockets loaden vvith Stones, to pelt at the Signs.

     1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section XI. A Tale of a Tub.”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], pages 203–204

   • Will someone hand me anything hard and bruising to pelt at her?

     1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Interlopers”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, pages 327–328

5. (archaic except Britain, dialectal) To repeatedly beat or hit (someone or something).

6. (figuratively) To assail (someone) with harsh words in speech or writing; to abuse, to insult.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • I have […] had the honour to be pelted with several epistles to expostulate with me on that subject.

     1710 July 8 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [pseudonym; Richard Steele et al.], “Tuesday, June 27, 1710”, in The Tatler, number 190; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, […], London stereotype edition, volume III, London: I. Walker and Co.; […], 1822, page 105

   • 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.

     1791, James Boswell, quoting Samuel Johnson, “”, in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume I, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], page 454

(intransitive)

1. Especially of hailstones, rain, or snow: to beat down or fall forcefully or heavily; to rain down.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act II, scene iv

   • Ever let the Fancy roam, / Pleasure never is at home: / At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth, / Like to bubbles when rain pelteth; […]

     1819 (date written), John Keats, “Fancy”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, page 122

   • 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.

     1822 May, J. M. Lacey, “Address to the First of April Last—a Very Cold Day”, in The Lady’s Monthly Museum; or, Polite Repository of Amusement and Instruction; […], volume XV (Improved Series), London: […] Dean and Munday, […], stanza 2, page 299

   • 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;— […]

     1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXXII, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], page 404

2. (figuratively) To move rapidly, especially in or on a conveyance.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], page 18

   • Spring, is ye comen in, / Dappled larke singe, / Snow melteth, / Runnel pelteth, / Smelleth wind of newe buddinge.

     1892 March, “Mother Talks—A Spring Walk”, in Cora L. Stockham, Andrea Hofer, editors, The Kindergarten Magazine […], volume IV, number VII, Chicago, Ill.: Kindergarten Publishing Company, page 471, column 2

   • 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.

     2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, archived from the original on 11 July 2022

3. (archaic, also figuratively) Chiefly followed by at: to bombard someone or something with missiles continuously.  quotations

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i], page 106, column 1

   • [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, […]

     1645 March 14 (Gregorian calendar), J[ohn] M[ilton], Colasterion: A Reply to a Nameles Answer against The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. […], [London?: s.n.], page 2

   • 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, […]

     a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “Since the Reformation”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, page 17

4. (obsolete) To throw out harsh words; to show anger.  quotations

   Quotations

   • [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.“M. Iuell” is John Jewel.

     1564 December 1 (Gregorian calendar), Iohn Rastell [i.e., John Rastell], “[Of Corpus Christi Daye and of the Seruice of that Holye Daye]”, in A Confutation of a Sermon, Pronoũced by M. Iuell, at Paules Crosse, the Second Sondaie before Easter (which Catholikes Doe Call Passion Sondaie) Anno Dñi .M.D.LX., Antwerp: […] Ægidius Diest, folio 84, verso

   • Another ſmotherd, ſeemes to pelt and ſvveare, / And in their rage ſuch ſignes of rage they beare, […]

     1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], signature K2, verso

   • 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.

     1673, John Milton, Of True Religion, Heresie, Schism, Toleration, and What Best Means may be Us’d against the Growth of Popery. […]; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume II, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, page 811

A beating or falling down of hailstones, rain, or snow in a shower.  quotations  examples

(archaic except Ireland) A blow or stroke from something thrown.  quotations

(figuratively, archaic)

1. (except Ireland) A verbal insult; a jeer, a jibe, a taunt.  examples

2. (except Midlands, Southern England (South West)) A fit of anger; an outburst, a rage.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The pope [Innocent IV] being in this pelt, Ægidus, a Spanish cardinal, thus interposed his gravity: […]The spelling has been modernized.

     1655, Thomas Fuller, “Section V. Thomæ Hanson, Amico Meo.”, in James Nichols, editor, The Church History of Britain, […], new edition, volume I, London: […] [James Nichols] for Thomas Tegg and Son, […], published 1837, book III, subsection 29, 30 (The Pope’s Fume against This Good Bishop Quenched by a Spanish Cardinal.), page 359

(chiefly Northern England except in at (full) pelt) An act of moving quickly; a rush.  quotations  examples

A tattered or worthless piece of clothing; a rag.  examples

(by extension) Anything in a ragged and worthless state; rubbish, trash.  examples

(intransitive, obsolete) To bargain for a better deal; to haggle.

(obsolete, rare) Alternative form of pelta

1. (historical) A small shield, especially one of an approximately elliptical form, or crescent-shaped.

2. (botany) A flat apothecium with no rim.  examples