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strip off the skin, bark, or rind of; to strip by drawing or tearing off the skin, bark, husks, etc.; to flay; to decorticate; as, to peel an orange. The skillful shepherd peeled me certain wands. Shak.

Fig.: Dry, old; husky; withered; spiritless. "A somewhat sapless womanhood." Lowell. Now sapless on the verge of death he stands. Dryden.

A shell or husk; a cod or pod. "The green shales of a bean." Chapman.

To take the husks or pods off from; to shell; to empty of its contents, as a husk or a pod. [Obs. or Prov.Eng. & Scot.] Jamieson. That's a shealed peascod. Shak.

The outer husk, pod, or shell, as of oats, pease, etc.; sheal; shell. [Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot.]

The husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is often used as a substitute for chocolate, cocoa, etc.

A shell, husk, or pod; especially, the outer covering of such nuts as the hickory nut, butternut, peanut, and chestnut.

The husks and other refuse of rice mills, used to adulterate oil cake, or linseed cake.

Full of, or consisting of, husks; husky. [Obs.]

The bark or husk of a plant or fruit; the exterior coat of fruits and plants.

A nutritious article of food, much used in Scotland, made from the husk of the oat by a process not unlike that by which common starch is made; -- called flummery in England. [Written also sowans, and sowins.]

To beat out grain from, as straw or husks; to beat the straw or husk of (grain) with a flail; to beat off, as the kernels of grain; as, to thrash wheat, rye, or oats; to thrash over the old straw. The wheat was reaped, thrashed, and winnowed by machines. H. Spencer.

To strip the shale, or husk, from; to uncover. [Obs.] I will not unshale the jest before it be ripe. Marston.

fragrant roots which are much used for making mats and screens. Also called kuskus, and khuskhus. [Sometimes written vetivert, and vitivert.]