keep your eyes peeled

[goindoolally]

does anyone know where this saying comes from? TIA

[Clanad]

On a more realistic note: To keep your eyes peeled for something is to keep them wide open, to keep a sharp lookout. The earliest known form of the frontier expression, recorded in 1833, was to 'keep your eyes skinned' (presumably meaning with the lids drawn back): 'I wish I may be shot if I don't think you had better keep your eyes skinned so that you can look powerful sharp.'" From "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Frederickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997). (Common in American usage)