pelt

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“
With the free trader a pelt is a pelt, prime or unprime, it makes no difference.

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Definitions (35)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. noun The skin of an animal with the fur or hair still on it.
  2. noun A stripped animal skin ready for tanning.
  3. transitive verb To strike or assail repeatedly with or as if with blows or missiles; bombard: pelted each other with snowballs.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (17)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

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Examples (50)

  • The meat had something of the same sharp and musky taste that he had smelled in the animal's pelt, and swallowing it involved him in a mighty struggle. —  Asimov's Science Fiction, Jan. 2002
  • The fur of the pelt was remarkably soft and the inside had been worked to a texture like the supplest of leathers, only the deep-set stains of human oil and a faintly sour smell hinted at its age. —  ChallengingDestiny#24:August2007
  • Its mottled pelt was the choicest prize a hunter could bring back as proof of his prowess. —  Astounding, January 1943
  • The carpet was as thick as a sheep's pelt, and it was off-white. —  Charlaine Harris - Southern Vamp 07 - All Together Dead
  • 'Just the price of his pelt, and that will bring sixty-five cents,' was the answer. —  A Study Of Hawthorne
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

fur ·  hide ·  mane ·  paw ·  cape ·  cloak ·  carcass ·  plumage ·  skin ·  muzzle ·  overcoat ·  muff

Used in the same contextWord Family

pelt:   pelting ·  pelts
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, probably from Old French pelete, diminutive of pel, skin, from Latin pellis; see pel-3 in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English pelten, variant of pilten, perhaps ultimately from Latin pultāre, to beat, variant of pulsāre, frequentative of pellere, to strike; see pel-5 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English pelten, pilten, pulten, apparently from Latin pultare, beat, strike, knock, collateral form of pulsare, push, strike, beat, batter: see pulsate, pulse, v. It is commonly supposed that pelt is a contracted form of pellet, v., not found in sense of ‘pelt,’ but cf. equivalent F. peloter, beat, handle roughly, Old French peloter, play at ball, toss like a ball, = Italian pelottare, pilottare, thump, cuff, baste (Florio); but the required orig. Middle English *peleten would not contract in Middle English to pelten, nor produce the form pulten. Cf. palt, polt.
  2. from pelt, v.
  3. from Middle English pelt, apparently developed from pelter, peltry regarded as from pelt + -er or -ry: see pelter, peltry. The G. pelz, fur, skin, is a different word, Middle High German pelz, belz, belliz, Old High German Pelliz = Anglo-Saxon pylce (from English Pilch), from Middle Latin Pellicea, a skin, a furred robe, later ult. pilch and pelisse: see pilch, pelisse. Cf. Pell.
  4. pelt, n.
 

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/pɛlt/
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