In order to better evaluate the imbibitional chilling injury resistance of peanut，we analyzed the water-uptake conditions during peanut germination under the normal temperature（25 ℃）and chilling treatment （2 ℃），respectively. The result revealed that the duration time for the imbibitional stage of peanut germination among different peanut genotype was consistent，lasting from 0-12 h after seed soaking. The chilling stress was found to slow down the speed of water-uptake at the early phase of imbibition stage；however，on visible difference on duration time was observed. The imbibitional chilling injury was found to be much more serious than chilling injury occurred at other stages during peanut germination. By further evaluating the effect of temperature and duration of imbibitional chilling injury on the germination rate，the results showed that 2 ℃ /12 h was the most optimal condition to identify the imbibitional chilling injury resistance. By taking use of this method，sixtyfour peanut accessions were evaluated for their imbibitional chilling injury resistance. Seven accessions showed the relative germination rate over 85% under the imbibitional chilling stress，and they were considered as chillingtolerance accessions. Taken together，this study provided useful information for breeding new peanut varieties with chilling-tolerance and also for unlocking the mechanism for chilling response of peanut during imbibition.