peel me a grape

phrase

A request to be pampered or to have one's whims indulged.

Meanings

phrase
  1. A request to be pampered or to have one's whims indulged.

    “Daaaahlings I say, please refill my glass and peel me a grape.” She grinned and mugged it up for us gathered proletariat.

    2011, Michael R. Häack, Passport: A Novel of Adventure and Intrigue, →ISBN, page 414
    3 more examples

    His early, brilliant "Peel Me a Grape," which has long been one of Blossom Dearie's anthems, laughs at social ennui in the seventies and eighties in the way that Cole Porter laughed at it in the thirties: Peel me a grape, crush me some ice, Skin me a peach, save the fuzz for my pillow, Start me a smoke, talk to me nice, You gotta wine me and dine me, Don't try and fool me, bejewel me, Either amuse me or lose me, I'm gettin' hungry -- peel me a grape.

    2006, Whitney Balliett -, American Singers: Twenty-Seven Portraits in Song, →ISBN, page 242

    Can't you hear Adam say to her, “Peel me a grape, Lilith.” And her response: “Peel it yourself! And while you are at it, where's dinner?”

    2009, Ronald B. Allen, Beverly Allen, Liberated Traditionalism: Men and Women in Balance, →ISBN, page 91

    Half an hour later when dad and I ventured into the lounge, mum glaring at us with a face like thunder, Kim was lying contentedly next to Armalade in front of the fire, a real con merchant if ever there was one, basking in all the attention. Talk about peel me a grape!

    2011, Maggie Graham, Me and My Animals, →ISBN, page 80

Origin

First recorded use by Mae West in the film I'm no Angel (1933): "Beulah, (yes ma'am) peel me a grape."

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

peel me a grape. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peel%20me%20a%20grape

MLA

“peel me a grape.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peel%20me%20a%20grape. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “peel me a grape,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peel%20me%20a%20grape.

Source: peel me a grape on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.