What does "pelt" mean?
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).
Pelt
/pɛlt/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: 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).
- Grammar: pelt is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: hide, skin, assail, assault.
- Useful contrasts: avoid, bare skin, flesh.
- Usage evidence: Do not pelt your dog with stones, so the neighbors will not imitate you.
How to use "pelt"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "pelt" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "pelt" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "pelt" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "pelt" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "pelt" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "hide" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
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Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "pelt", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 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."
- 2 A beating or falling down of hailstones, rain, or snow in a shower. transitive
"[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."
- 3 A tattered or worthless piece of clothing; a rag. Scotland, transitive
- 4 Alternative form of pelta.; A small shield, especially one of an approximately elliptical form, or crescent-shaped. historical, obsolete, rare, transitive
- 5 body covering of a living animal wordnet
Show 12 more definitions
- 6 The skin of an animal (especially a goat or sheep) with the hair or wool removed, often in preparation for tanning. also, figuratively
- 7 A blow or stroke from something thrown. transitive
"[T]he cripple, in falling, gave him ſuch a good pelt on the head vvith his crutch, that the blood follovved."
- 8 Anything in a ragged and worthless state; rubbish, trash. Scotland, broadly, transitive
- 9 Alternative form of pelta.; A flat apothecium with no rim. obsolete, rare, transitive
- 10 the dressed hairy coat of a mammal wordnet
- 11 The fur or hair of a living animal.
"Near-synonym: coat"
- 12 A verbal insult; a jeer, a jibe, a taunt. figuratively, transitive
- 13 Human skin, especially when bare; also, a person's hair. Ireland, humorous, informal
"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."
- 14 A fit of anger; an outburst, a rage. figuratively, transitive
"The pope [Innocent IV] being in this pelt, Ægidus, a Spanish cardinal, thus interposed his gravity: […]"
- 15 A garment made from animal skins. obsolete
- 16 An act of moving quickly; a rush. transitive
"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."
- 17 The body of any quarry killed by a hawk; also, a dead bird given to a hawk for food. obsolete
"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.""
Verb
- 1 To remove the skin from (an animal); to skin. transitive
"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."
- 2 To bombard (someone or something) with missiles. transitive
"The children are pelting each other with snowballs."
- 3 To bargain for a better deal; to haggle. intransitive, obsolete, transitive
- 4 attack and bombard with or as if with missiles wordnet
- 5 Chiefly followed by from: to remove (the skin) from an animal. transitive
"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: […]"
Show 12 more definitions
- 6 To force (someone or something) to move using blows or the throwing of missiles. transitive
"[…] 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."
- 7 cast, hurl, or throw repeatedly with some missile wordnet
- 8 To remove feathers from (a bird). obsolete, rare, transitive
"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."
- 9 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. transitive
"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, […]"
- 10 rain heavily wordnet
- 11 Chiefly followed by at: to (continuously) throw (missiles) at. transitive
"The children pelted apples at us."
- 12 To repeatedly beat or hit (someone or something). dialectal, transitive
- 13 To assail (someone) with harsh words in speech or writing; to abuse, to insult. figuratively, transitive
"I have […] had the honour to be pelted with several epistles to expostulate with me on that subject."
- 14 Especially of hailstones, rain, or snow: to beat down or fall forcefully or heavily; to rain down. intransitive, transitive
"It’s pelting down out there!"
- 15 To move rapidly, especially in or on a conveyance. figuratively, intransitive, transitive
"I pelted across to where my family was sitting."
- 16 Chiefly followed by at: to bombard someone or something with missiles continuously. also, archaic, figuratively, intransitive, transitive
"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."
- 17 To throw out harsh words; to show anger. intransitive, obsolete, transitive
"[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."
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
"Do not pelt your dog with stones, so the neighbors will not imitate you."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "pelt"?
Common synonyms include: hide, skin, assail, assault, assaulted, attack.
How do you use "pelt" in a sentence?
Do not pelt your dog with stones, so the neighbors will not imitate you.
How do you pronounce "pelt"?
Pronounced /pɛlt/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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”)
Etymology 2
The verb is derived from Late Middle English pelt, pelte; further origin uncertain, probably a variant of Late Middle English pilten (“to push, thrust; to strike; to cast down, humble; to incite, induce; to place, put; to extend, reach forward with”) [and other forms], possibly from Old English *pyltan, from Late Latin *pultiare, from Latin pultāre (“to beat, knock, strike”), the frequentative of pellere, the present active infinitive of pellō (“to drive, impel, propel, push; to hurl; to banish, eject, expel, thrust out; to beat, strike; to set in motion”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to beat; to drive, push”). The noun is derived from the verb.
Etymology 3
Uncertain; possibly related to pelting (“mean, paltry”) (obsolete), peltry (“rubbish, trash; an unpleasant thing”) (chiefly Scotland, obsolete), and paltry (“of little value, trashy, trivial; contemptibly unimportant, despicable”), possibly from a Germanic language such as Middle Low German palte, palter (“cloth; rag, shred”), from Old Saxon *paltro, *palto (“cloth; rag”), from Proto-Germanic *paltrô, *paltô (“patch; rag, scrap”). The ultimate origin is uncertain, but the word is possibly a wanderwort from *polto- (“cloth”).
Etymology 4
Uncertain; possibly related to palter (“to talk insincerely; to prevaricate or equivocate in speech or actions; to haggle; to babble, chatter; (rare) to trifle”), further etymology unknown. The Oxford English Dictionary takes the view that any relation to pelting (“mean, paltry”) (obsolete) and paltry (“of little value, trashy, trivial; contemptibly unimportant, despicable”) is unlikely.
Etymology 5
A variant of pelta, borrowed from Latin pelta, from Ancient Greek πέλτη (péltē, “small crescent-shaped leather shield of Thracian design”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps either from Thracian, or ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to cover; to wrap; hide; skin; cloth”).