English
peer
Etymology 1

From Middle English piren, from or related to Saterland Frisian pierje, nds-nl piren, West Flemish pieren, Dutch pieren, which could all be related to the root of English blear.

Pronunciation Verb

peer (peers, present participle peering; simple past and past participle peered)

  1. (intransitive) To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.
    • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene i]:
      […] 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[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC ↗, page 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 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC ↗; republished as chapter VI, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June, →OCLC ↗, page 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. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene iii]:
      And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, / So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
    • 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC ↗, Act IIII, signatures I, verso – I2, recto ↗:
      I, I, let you alone, cunning Artificer! / See, hovv his gorget peeres aboue his govvne; / To tell the people, in vvhat danger he vvas.
Translations Noun

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 […]
Etymology 2

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

Pronunciation Noun

peer (plural peers)

  1. Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level or of a value equal (to that of something else).
    • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun's Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:
      In song he never had his peer.
    • 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC ↗:
      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 title, i.e., a peerage, and in times past, with certain rights and privileges not enjoyed by commoners.
    a peer of the realm
    • 1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “Comus”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC ↗:
      a noble peer of mickle trust and power
  4. A comrade; a companion; an associate.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, stanza 37:
      He all his Peeres in beautie did surpas,
Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

peer (peers, present participle peering; simple past and past participle peered)

  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.
Pronunciation Noun

peer (plural peers)

  1. (informal) Someone who pees, someone who urinates.


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