peg

From Middle English pegge, from Middle Dutch pegge (“pin, peg”), from Old Saxon *pigg-, *pegg-, from Proto-Germanic *pig-, *pag- (“peg, stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *bak-, *baḱ- (“club, pointed stick, peg”). Cognate with Dutch dialectal peg (“pin”), Low German pig, pigge (“peg, stick with a point”), Low German pegel (“post, stake”), Swedish pigg (“tooth, spike”), Irish bac (“stick, crook”), Latin baculum (“staff”), Latvian bakstît (“to poke”), Ancient Greek βάκτρον (báktron, “staff, walking stick”). Related to beak.

This is one of the very few English words that begin with a p and come from Proto-Germanic. Proto-Germanic *p, when not in a consonant cluster beginning with *s, developed by Grimm's law from the Proto-Indo-European consonant *b, which was very rare.

• IPA^(key): /pɛɡ/, [pʰɛɡ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: Peg
• Rhymes: -ɛɡ

peg (plural pegs)

1. A cylindrical wooden or metal object used to fasten or as a bearing between objects.
2. Measurement between the pegs: after killing an animal hunters used the distance between a peg near the animal's nose and one near the end of its body to measure its body length.
3. A protrusion used to hang things on.

   Hang your coat on the peg and come in.

4. (figuratively) A support; a reason; a pretext.

   a peg to hang a claim upon

5. (cribbage) A peg moved on a crib board to keep score.
6. (finance) A fixed exchange rate, where a currency's value is matched to the value of another currency or measure such as gold
7. (Britain) A small quantity of a strong alcoholic beverage.
   • Harper's Magazine

     This over, the club will be visited for a "peg," Anglice drink.

   • 1953, S. S. Field, The American drink book‎, page 65:

     The name had come to mean any aromatic essence of herbs by the time the first thirsty colonial poured a peg of Who-shot-John into his mint water.

8. A place formally allotted for fishing
9. (colloquial, dated) A leg or foot.
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 2

     "Now I'm cleaned up for thee: tha's no 'casions ter stir a peg all day, but sit and read thy books."

10. One of the pins of a musical instrument, on which the strings are strained.
    • William Shakespeare: Othello, Act 2, Scene I:

      O, you are well tuned now!

      But I'll set down the pegs that make this music,

      As honest as I am.

    • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 1, chapter 4

      Did we form ourselves, choosing, and our powers? I find myself, for one, as a stringed instrument with chords and stops - but I have no power to turn the pegs, or pitch my thoughts to a higher or lower key.

11. A step; a degree.
    • Barrow

      to screw papal authority to the highest peg

    • Hudibras

      We still have worsted all your holy tricks; / Trepann'd your party with intrigue, / And took your grandees down a peg […]

12. Short for clothes peg.

• (small quantity of strong liquor): shot

peg (third-person singular simple present pegs, present participle pegging, simple past and past participle pegged)

1. To fasten using a peg.

   Let's peg the rug to the floor.

2. To affix or pin.

   I found a tack and pegged your picture to the bulletin board.

   She lunged forward and pegged him to the wall.

3. To fix a value or price.

   China's currency is no longer pegged to the American dollar.

4. To narrow the cuff openings of a pair of pants so that the legs take on a peg shape.
5. To throw.
6. To indicate or ascribe an attribute to. (Assumed to originate from the use of pegs or pins as markers on a bulletin board or a list.)

   He's been pegged as a suspect.

   I pegged his weight at 165.

7. (cribbage) To move one's pegs to indicate points scored; to score with a peg.

   She pegged twelve points.

8. (slang) To reach or exceed the maximum value on a scale or gauge.

   We pegged the speedometer across the flats.

9. (slang, typically in heterosexual contexts) To engage in anal sex by penetrating one's male partner with a dildo.
   • 2007, Violet Blue, The Adventurous Couple's Guide to Strap-On Sex‎, →ISBN, page 32:

     When you're pegging him and he gets close to orgasm, you'll observe a number of physical signs […]

10. To keep working hard at something; to peg away.
    • 1911, William Montgomerie Lamont, Volunteer memories (page 160)

      For more than the period of his splendid service in India, which the country was not slow to acknowledge, the Volunteers had kept pegging at it, despite all the official obstacles thrown in the way […]

• level pegging
• peggable
• pegging
• pegged pants

• wedge, compare Latin cuneus
• cone, compare Latin conus
• cunny, cunt, compare Latin cunnus
• (cribbage): muggins

• EPG

• IPA^(key): /paj/, [pʰɑjˀ]
• Rhymes: -ajˀ

peg

1. imperative of pege

peg

1. peg