What it means
A Scots way to say someone looks pale, washed out, and a bit not-right. You'd use it for illness, cold, tiredness, or that ghostly hungover face after a daft night. It usually lands half caring, half taking the mick, the kind of word that comes with sit down, hen, and have a cuppa.
Usage examples
"You’re looking pure peely-wally, hen. Big night, was it? Get yersel a cuppa and sit doon afore you topple in the close."
"You're looking awful peely-wally this morning, are you coming down with something?"
"After the flight she was pure peely-wally, straight to bed with a cuppa."
"Och, look at you, pure peely-wally after that bug. Get under a blanket and stop pretending you're grand."
"He came into work all peely-wally, eyes half-shut and skin like he'd been charged by moonlight instead of sleep."
Where it comes from
It’s a real Scots dialect word going back to older Scots use. Peely means pale or wan-looking, and wally here is part of the rhyming, sing-song build that gives it its droopy little music. The whole thing stuck because it sounds exactly like the look it describes, all drained colour and no sparkle.
Other ways to say it
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