peer

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɪə/
• (General American) enPR: pîr, IPA^(key): /piɹ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• Homophone: pier

From Middle English piren (“to peer”), from or related to Saterland Frisian pierje (“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”).

peer (third-person singular simple present peers, present participle peering, simple past and past participle peered)

1. (intransitive) To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.
   • c. 1696, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene 1,

     […] I should be still

     Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind,

     Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;

   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in Lyrical Ballads, London: J. & A. Arch, Part III, p. 17,

     And strait the Sun was fleck’d with bars

     (Heaven’s mother send us grace)

     As if thro’ a dungeon grate he peer’d

     With broad and burning face.

   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter I, p. 10,

     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, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1914, Chapter 6, p. 65,

     He 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. (intransitive, obsolete) To come in sight; to appear.
   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene 3,

     And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,

     So honour peereth in the meanest habit.

   • 1611, Ben Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: Walter Burre, Act III,

     See, how his gorget peeres aboue his gowne;

• overpeer

peer (plural peers)

1. A look; a glance.
   • 1970, William Crookes, ‎T. A. Malone, ‎George Shadbolt, The British journal of photography (volume 117, page 58)

     Blessed are those organisers who provide one-and-all with a name tag, for then the participants will chat together. A quick peer at your neighbour's lapel is much the simplest way to become introduced […]

From Middle English pere, per, from Anglo-Norman peir, Old French per, from Latin pār.

peer (plural peers)

1. Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level equal (to that of something else).
   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     In song he never had his peer.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Isaac Taylor

     Shall they draw off to their privileged quarters, and consort only with their peers?

2. Someone who is approximately the same age (as someone else).
3. 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

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     a noble peer of mickle trust and power

4. A comrade; a companion; an associate.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Edmund Spenser

     He all his peers in beauty did surpass.

peer (third-person singular simple present peers, present participle peering, simple past and past participle peered)

1. To make equal in rank.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Heylin to this entry?)

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.

• peer-to-peer

• peer assessment
• peer review, peer reviewed
• peer pressure
• peerless
• the Peers

pee +‎ -er

peer (plural peers)

1. (informal) Someone who pees, someone who urinates.
   • 1999 August 22, “Re: Swimming after eating”, in alt.folklore.urban, Usenet‎:

     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!”, in alt.parenting.solutions, Usenet‎:

     SOunds^[sic] 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?”, in rec.pets.dogs.behavior, Usenet‎:

     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.

• pere, père

From Dutch peer, from Middle Dutch pēre, from Latin pira.

peer (plural pere)

1. pear

From Middle Dutch pēre, from Latin pira.

• IPA^(key): /peːr/, [pɪːr]

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːr

peer f (plural peren, diminutive peertje n)

1. pear
2. light bulb

• Afrikaans: peer

• reep

peer

1. Alternative form of pere (“peer”)

peer

1. Alternative form of pere (“equal”)

• IPA^(key): /pir/

From Middle English pere (“pear”), from Old English pere, peru, from Vulgar Latin *pira, from Latin pirum.

peer (plural peers)

1. pear (fruit)

• peerie

From Middle English piren (“to peer”).

peer (third-person singular present peers, present participle peerin, past peert, past participle peert)

1. To peer.

From Latin pēdere, present active infinitive of pēdō, from Proto-Italic *pezdō (“to fart”) from Proto-Indo-European *pesd- (“to fart”).

peer (first-person singular present peo, first-person singular preterite peí, past participle peído)

1. to break wind, to fart
2. (reflexive) to break wind; fart

• Rule: i becomes y before o or e.

• peerse
• pedo
• pedorrear