/ˈpiːtə/, /ˈpitɚ/, [ˈpʰitɚ]
OriginFrom Middle English Peter, from Old English Petrus, from Latin Petrus, from Ancient Greek Πέτρος (Pétros), from πέτρος (pétros, “stone, rock”). Doublet of Pedro, Piers, and Boutros.
- radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter P.
- slangThe penis.
“You smile, act polite, shake their hands, then cut off their peters and put them in your pocket.” “Yes, Mr. President,” answered O'Brien.”
“... and you were there, and they acted like you weren't even born yet?' "I'd say, 'Yes, their memories are as long as their peters.'"”
““It's to put on their peters when they don't want to make babies,” she said.”
- UK, slangA safe.
“It used to be simple to 'crack a peter'. Safe-breaking (blowing or cracking a 'peter') in the past three or four years shows that the expert cracksman knows his job.”
“The forty quid! Gone! ’Ow could she ’ave gotten in there? The peter ain’t broke, no sign of it bein’ bettied, and I the only one w’ the key.”
- UK, slangA prison cell.
“[…] the ceremony of 'slopping out', breakfast, across to the main library from nine till half-past eleven, back to my peter for the mid-day meal and two hours' break, then the library again till five ”
- countable, uncountableA male given name from Ancient Greek.
“She knew of no Peter, and yet he was here and there in John and Michael's minds, while Wendy's began to be scrawled all over with him. The name stood out in bolder letters than any of the other words,”
“What splendid names for boys there are! / There's Carol like a rolling car, / And Martin like a flying bird, / And Adam like the Lord's First Word, / And Raymond like the Harvest Moon, / And Peter lik”
“Reps. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Peter Meijer, a Republican from Michigan, said in a joint statement Tuesday that they had traveled to Kabul “to conduct oversight on the mission ”
- countable, uncountableThe leading Apostle in the New Testament: Saint Peter.
- countable, uncountableThe epistles of Peter in the New Testament of the Bible, 1 Peter and 2 Peter attributed to St. Peter.
- countable, uncountableA surname originating as a patronymic.
- countable, uncountableA census-designated place in Cache County, Utah, United States, named after Peter Maughan.
- intransitiveChiefly followed by out: originally (mining), of a vein of ore: to be depleted of ore; now (generally), to diminish to nothing; to dwindle, to trail off.
“I found a veinlet about 15 in. wide and very rich in gold. Trenching along its outcrop showed that it extended about 100 ft. and then pinched out altogether. A winze sunk on the veinlet showed that it”
“Mersey Street is particularly attractive. Running up from the bay, it passes between terraced cottages before petering into a footpath that leads over the headland to a golf course and the dune-backed”
“Whitney is absorbed especially by Dublin's unglamorous interstitial zones: the new housing estates and labyrinths of roads, watercourses and railways where the city peters into its commuter belt.”
- intransitiveSynonym of blue peter; to call for trump by throwing away a high card while holding a lower one.
FormsPeters(plural) · peters(plural) · peters(present, singular, third-person) · petering(participle, present) · petered(participle, past) · petered(past)