Peel fruit, we hear (4)
I believe the answer is:
pare
'peel' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'fruit we hear' is the wordplay.
'fruit' becomes 'pear' (pear is a kind of fruit).
'we hear' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'pear' is a homophone of 'PARE'.
(Other definitions for pare that I've seen before include "Whittle" , "Remove the skin from" , "Trim by cutting" , "Trim off in layers" , "Decrease gradually" .)