• Peer

    Pronunciation

    Origin 1

    From Middle English piren ("to peer"), from or related to Saterland Frisian piren ("to look"), Dutch Low Saxon piren ("to look"), West Flemish pieren ("to look with narrowed eyes, squint at"), Dutch pieren ("to look closely at, examine").

    Full definition of peer

    Verb

    1. (intransitive) To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.
      • Shakespearepeering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads
      • Coleridgeas if through a dungeon grate he peered
      • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,He walked slowly past the gate and peered through a narrow gap in the cedar hedge. The girl was moving along a sanded walk, toward a gray, unpainted house, with a steep roof, broken by dormer windows.
      • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 6He would peek into the curtained windows, or, climbing upon the roof, peer down the black depths of the chimney in vain endeavor to solve the unknown wonders that lay within those strong walls.
    2. to come in sight; to appear.
      • ShakespeareSo honour peereth in the meanest habit.
      • Ben JonsonSee how his gorget peers above his gown!

    Origin 2

    From Anglo-Norman peir, Old French per, from Latin par.

    Noun

    peer

    (plural peers)
    1. Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level equal (to that of something else).
      • DrydenIn song he never had his peer.
      • Isaac TaylorShall they draw off to their privileged quarters, and consort only with their peers?
      1. Someone who is approximately the same age (as someone else).
    2. A noble with a hereditary title, i.e., a peerage, and in times past, with certain rights and privileges not enjoyed by commoners.a peer of the realm
      • Miltona noble peer of mickle trust and power
    3. A comrade; a companion; an associate.
      • SpenserHe all his peers in beauty did surpass.

    Verb

    1. to make equal in rank.
    2. (Internet) To carry communications traffic terminating on one's own network on an equivalency basis to and from another network, usually without charge or payment. Contrast with transit where one pays another network provider to carry one's traffic.

    Derived terms

    Related terms

    Origin 3

    pee + -er

    Noun

    peer

    (plural peers)
    1. Someone who pees, someone who urinates.
      • 1999, August 22, Re: Swimming after eating, As was the caveat about peeing in a pool. Of course, peeing in a pool wasn't dangerous to the person ... If you peed in a pool, and you were carrying the polio virus, presumably *other* people were put at risk, not the peer (pee-er?).
      • 2000, August 29, Re: 32 month old urinating in his room! HELP!, SOunds like you've already broken him quite well, if he's peeing when disciplined. Pretty sad. He's not a dog, not that treating a dog like this is any better either. You've turned your child into a submissive peer.
      • 2003, October 11, Re: do female's "mark" their territory?, Submissive peeing, on the other hand, IS related to anxiety. But submissive peeing is not marking. A submissive peer is generally a very submissive dog.

    Anagrams

    © Wiktionary
    • © 2013 - 2023 All Rights Reserved