Peeler

Peeler (plural Peelers)

1. (Ireland, slang) Alternative form of peeler (policeman).
   • 1839, Dennis Burrowes Kelly, The manor of Glenmore; or, The Irish peasant, by a member of the Irish bar:

     The rest, on the contrary, the rather congratulated themselves on having parted with such suspicious company; -- and the little tailor had scarcely time to enunciate his advice, "to be chatting and walking on, as if they weren't thinking of or minding them at all," — when the sergeant of the party coolly took his little self by the collar, while the remaining Peelers, surrounding the others, made them severally captives.

   • 1840, Henry Cockton, The life and adventures of Valentine Vox, the ventriloquist, page 159:

     It at once became abundantly manifest, that those six Peelers had arrived with some object in view; and before the Sovereign People had time even to guess what that object might be, one of the Peelers very coolly depreived the horse of his nose-bag; another just as coolly returned the bit to his mouth; and a third, with equal coolness, go hold of the reins, when a fourth, who was certainly not quite so cool, did, by virtue of the application of a short round truncheon, persuade the passive animal to move on.

   • 2008, Fionnuala Maccurtain, Remember It's for Ireland: A Family Memoir of Tomas Maccurtain, →ISBN:

     The Peelers in their searches were always threatening, abusive, bad mannered and even threatened to shoot the women and were very disrespectful.

Peeler (plural Peelers)

1. A surname.

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Peeler is the 5901^st most common surname in the United States, belonging to 5848 individuals. Peeler is most common among White (79.87%) and Black/African American (16.09%) individuals.

• Leeper, repeel