pelt
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to attack or assail with repeated blows or with missiles.
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to throw (missiles).
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to drive by blows or missiles.
The child pelted the cows home from the fields.
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to assail vigorously with words, questions, etc.
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to beat or rush against with repeated forceful blows.
The wind and rain pelted the roofs and walls of the houses for four days.
verb (used without object)
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to strike blows; beat with force or violence.
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to throw missiles.
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to hurry.
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to beat or pound unrelentingly.
The wind, rain, and snow pelted against the castle walls.
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to cast abuse.
noun
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the untanned hide or skin of an animal.
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Facetious. the human skin.
idioms
verb
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(tr) to throw (missiles) at (a person)
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(tr) to hurl (insults) at (a person)
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(intr; foll by along, over, etc) to move rapidly; hurry
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to rain heavily
noun
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a blow
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speed (esp in the phrase at full pelt )
noun
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the skin of a fur-bearing animal, such as a mink, esp when it has been removed from the carcass
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the hide of an animal, stripped of hair and ready for tanning
Synonym Usage
See skin.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
peltsimple
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peltssimple
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have peltedperfect
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has peltedperfect
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am peltingprogressive
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are peltingprogressive
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is peltingprogressive
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have been peltingperfect progressive
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has been peltingperfect progressive
Past
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peltedsimple
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had peltedperfect
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was peltingprogressive
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were peltingprogressive
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had been peltingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pelt1
First recorded in 1490–1500; Middle English pilten, pelten; further origin uncertain
Origin of pelt2
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English; perhaps back formation from peltry; compare Old French pelete, derivative of Latin pellis “skin”
Explanation
A pelt is an animal's skin, fur and all. If you are wearing a fur coat, you are really wearing a pelt (hate to break it to you). Another meaning of pelt is to throw something at someone — over and over again. Attacking armies might pelt the enemy with bombs, and there's always some kid in the back of an elementary school classroom who tries to pelt his classmates with spitballs. Either way, there is an attack or bombardment involved. If you dare to wear an animal pelt in front of an animal rights activist, you might just get pelted with a tomato.
Vocabulary lists containing pelt
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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Touching Spirit Bear
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
CAMBRIDGE, England—Every summer, students here line up in dozens of boats, wait for a cannon to fire, then pelt around the narrow bends of the River Cam trying to smash the crew in front.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Japan's yukigassen federation emphasises the "mental challenge" posed by the game, in which players on both teams pelt their opponents while taking cover behind shelters.
From Barron's ● Feb. 22, 2026
Are those opposing coaches looking for their Carson Palmer pelt on the wall?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2025
By aiming above a wall, they could pelt the town behind it with beehives, scorpions, snakes, flaming pitch, rotten vermin, or excrement.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2025
“Blood and a pelt, hmm! You drive a tough bargain, doggie. All right. Bring me that bowl of borscht, would you, big sister?”
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Beavers were hunted to extinction in Britain 400 years ago for their meat, furry water-resistant pelts and a substance they secrete called castoreum - used in food, medicine and perfume.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2025
The setting for this mystery is ingeniously established with a picture frame enclosing the image of a gloomy mansion as lightning flashes in the evening sky and rain pelts noisily down.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2024
The costumes of the cachaceros, representing Africans, are phantasmagoric confections of old jaguar pelts, caiman skulls and peccary teeth.
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2024
Human hunting of wildcats—for pelts and because they were seen as vermin—in Great Britain in medieval times eventually drove the animals up into the remote highlands of Scotland.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 6, 2023
The furrier, a plain woman with spindly arms, leaned over the counter, digging her hands into a stack of fox pelts.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
‘They threw tomatoes’ ”—a reference to a scene in the ad in which she is pelted with the fruit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
But his small group was quickly overwhelmed—and pelted with water balloons.
From Slate ● Jan. 20, 2026
But, overall, some travelers dodged shutdown bullets, others were pelted as airlines canceled more than 10,000 flights in the last week alone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2025
His convoy was pelted with rocks on the campaign trail.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2025
The wind blew fierce and strong, and it pelted them with bits of sticks, sand, and little rocks.
From "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck
A man’s voice cut through the rain pelting the pitch-black Caribbean Sea, just audible between two boats tossed around by 10-foot waves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
Walker Buehler pelting the pinstripes with precision pitches in the ninth inning of Game 5 to secure the championship for the Dodgers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 27, 2024
The weather had improved in the hour or so before kick-off but it's pelting down again now.
From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2024
Two years later, a shop selling musical instruments opened in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, her hometown, and An became a fixture there, pelting the owner with questions.
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2024
She gathered up rocks, and together the two of them started pelting the fire.
From "Aru Shah and the End of Time" by Roshani Chokshi
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
