Meanings
alternative peelie wallie
- Scotlandnot comparablePale, pasty; off-color or ill-looking.First known use 19th c.
‘Are there no English troops out here?’ ‘A few,’ Gilzean said. ‘But they're all sick. Peely-wally lot the English, ye ken.’
1984, William Boyd, An Ice Cream War1 more example
But I felt that Tommy's championing of the lit de soleil, as it's known in Maryhill, was courageous and condign. It allowed otherwise peely wally Glaswegians to hold their tanned faces aloft in polite company and let their neighbours think they'd been to Santa Ponsa or Majorca.
2011 July 3, Kevin McKenna, The Guardian
Origin
- Scotspeely-wally
- Englishpeely-wally
From Scots peely-wally.
More words from Scots
Full word history & related roots →Translations
German blass, bleich
- blasspale, off-color
- bleichpale, off-color
- fahlpale, off-color
- kränklichpale, off-color
Cite this entry
peely-wally. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peely-wally
“peely-wally.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peely-wally. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “peely-wally,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peely-wally.
Source: peely-wally on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.