Principal English Translation:
to strip off one's clothes
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 229.
Alonso de Molina:
petlaua. nino. (pret. oninopetlauh.) despojarme, o desnudarme.
petlaua. nite. (pret. onitepetlauh.) despojar, o desnudar a otro.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 81r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.
Frances Karttunen:
PETLĀHU(A) vrefl, vt to disrobe; to undress someone, to uncover something, to polish or burnish something / despojarme o desnudarme (M), despojar o desnudar a otro (M), bruñir, lucir, o acicalar algo (M) This makes the same connection between 'bare' and 'shiny' that PEHPETZOĀ and PEHPETZTIC do. See PETLĀN(I). PETLĀHUALŌ nonact. PETLĀHU(A).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 192.
Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:
nino. Class 2: ōninopetlāuh. 229
Attestations from sources in English:
mochi quipetlahuac = stripped him completely (Jalostotitlan, 1611)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 27, 170–171.
Attestations from sources in Spanish:
Auh yn Tolla napohualli chinamitl cenpohualli petlahuatoc nicmacatiuh ynonamic = En Tulan tengo ochenta camellones, los veinte camellones están labrados, todos los dichos camellones sean para mi mujer. (San Juan Moyotlan, D.F., 1551)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 2, Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVI, eds., Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencias Tecnología, 1999), 90–91.