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Definition of "pelting" [pel•ting]

  • Archaic Paltry; petty: "This land . . . /Is now leas'd out . . . /Like to a tenement or pelting farm” ( Shakespeare). (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "pelting" in a sentence
  • "The fight had become a game, and we took huge delight in pelting him."
  • "Duncan pulled shut the cover of the companion scuttle, and held on, waiting, the first drops of rain pelting his face, while the Samoset leaped violently ahead, at the same time heeling first to starboard then to port as the gusty pressures caught her winged-out sails."
  • "The final two heats of the four-man were run with the temperature near 40 and rain pelting the track through a howling wind."