peel away

English

Verb

peel away (third-person singular simple present peels away, present participle peeling away, simple past and past participle peeled away)

1. (intransitive) To separate off from the main body; to move off to one side (as in troop movements on a parade ground or in an organized retreat, or columns in a procession).
   • 2012 November 17, “Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Six minutes later, Mertesacker peeled away from Gallas to meet Walcott's right-wing cross with a superb header.

2. (intransitive) To become separate through peeling.

   All the paint had peeled away.

3. (transitive) To take away from something else.
   • 2002 April 19, Scott Tobias, “Fightville”, in The A.V. Club‎:

     Though mixed martial arts has successfully peeled away fans from boxing (a sport that's lost any compelling champions and much of its dignity) and WWE (a "sport" that’s always existed in quotation marks) it's had trouble shaking its reputation as "human cockfighting."

   • 2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 14:49 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN)‎, archived from the original on 4 December 2022:

     It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for the Japanese, though, although the first U.S. Navy strike force had... decidedly-mixed results; the Avengers in that group got lost and went after the cruiser Tone on their way back (missing), and the Wildcats got neatly peeled away by a single flight of Zeros, leaving the Dauntlesses wide open to another dozen Japanese fighters.

4. (intransitive, of an automobile or its driver) To burn out while accelerating and rapidly depart; to peel off, peel out.