• (RP) IPA: /pɪə/
• (GA) enPR: pîr, IPA: /piɹ/

peer (peers, present participle peering; 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;

• French: scruter du regard
• German: spähen
• Italian: scrutare, sbirciare
• Portuguese: espreitar
• Russian: вгля́дываться
• Spanish: escrutar

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 […]

• (RP) IPA: /pɪə/
• (GA) enPR: pîr, IPA: /piɹ/

peer (plural peers)

1. Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level or of a value equal (to that of something else).

   • In song he never had his peer.

   • 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

   • 1645, John Milton, “Comus”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […] , London: Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moſely,  […], OCLC 606951673 ↗:

     a noble peer of mickle trust and power

4. A comrade; a companion; an associate.

   • He all his peers in beauty did surpass.

• French: pair, pareil (pareille), semblable
• German: (age mate) Gleichaltriger, Gleichaltrige, Gleichaltrige; Ebenbürtiger, Beaufsichtigender, Kollege, Fachkollege, Peer
• Italian: pari, uguale, persona di pari condizione sociale
• Portuguese: par
• Russian: ро́вня
• Spanish: par

• Italian: coetaneo
• Russian: сверстник

• French: pair, noble
• German: Adeliger, Adelige, Edelmann, Edelfrau
• Italian: pari, nobile
• Portuguese: par
• Russian: пэр
• Spanish: par, noble

• Italian: uguali

peer (peers, present participle peering; 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.

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

• (RP) IPA: /piː.ə/
• (GA) enPR: pîr, IPA: /pi.ɚ/

peer (plural peers)

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