peer

present singular third person peers · participle present peering · participle past peered · past peered · alternative dialectal obsolete pire · alternative dialectal obsolete pyre

1. intransitiveTo look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.

   As if thro’ a dungeon grate he peer’d With broad and burning face.

   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)

   4 more examples

   […] I should be still / Plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind, / Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;

   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]

   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.

   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 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.

   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[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, June 1914, →OCLC, page 65

   Long before you see the lean, handsome heads peering mildly over the half-doors of the loose boxes, you know that East Ilsley's business is training racehorses.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 164

2. intransitiveobsoleteTo come in sight; to appear.

   And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, / So honour peereth in the meanest habit.

   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]

   1 more example

   I, I, let you alone, cunning Artificer! / See, hovv his gorget peeres aboue his govvne; / To tell the people, in vvhat danger he vvas.

   1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, Act IIII, signatures I, verso – I2, recto

plural peers · alternative dialectal obsolete pire · alternative dialectal obsolete pyre

1. A look; a glance.

   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 […]

   1970, William Crookes, T. A. Malone, George Shadbolt, The British journal of photography, volume 117, page 58

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.

   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

   1 more example

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

   1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC

   Synonyms: compeer

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

   1 more example

   a noble peer of mickle trust and power

   1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “Comus”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC

4. A comrade; a companion; an associate.

   He all his Peeres in beautie did surpas,

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 37

present singular third person peers · participle present peering · participle past peered · past peered

1. To make equal in rank.

   Being now Peered with the Lord Chancellor, and the Earl of Essex.

   1670, Peter Heylyn, Aerius Redivivus

2. InternetTo 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.

plural peers

1. informalSomeone who pees, someone who urinates.

   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.

   2003 October 11, “Re: do female's "mark" their territory?”, in rec.pets.dogs.behavior (Usenet)

   2 more examples

   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?).

   1999 August 22, “Re: Swimming after eating”, in alt.folklore.urban (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.

   2000 August 29, “Re: 32 month old urinating in his room! HELP!”, in alt.parenting.solutions (Usenet)