peter out

present singular third person peters out · participle present petering out · participle past petered out · past petered out

1. intransitiveSynonym of peter (“to diminish to nothing, (originally) to refer to a vein of ore”).

   What started as a great effort ended up petering out to nothing.

   5 more examples

   Q. Do you think, Doctor, that it is possible for that south strand to likewise peter out and disappear?

   1832, Records and Briefs of the United States Supreme Court, page 808, lines 16–17

   But the luck had failed, the mines petered out; and the army of miners had departed, and left this quarter of the world to the rattlesnakes and deer and grizzlies, and to the slower but steadier advance of husbandry.

   1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, “With the Children of Israel. I. To Introduce Mr. Kelmar.”, in The Silverado Squatters, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, page 60

   Seal the area off. Let them burn down the town, kill each other off, and it will peter out after a while.

   1967, Riots, Civil and Criminal Disorders, page 3097, lines 31–32

   I shall therefore suggest that the ongoing speaker deliberately allows her/his turn to peter out in the hope that someone else will take up the initiative.

   1991, Richard J. Watts, Power in Family Discourse, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 129

   The remaining 25% of air that lies more than 10km above ground becomes ever more tenuous until it finally peters out some 150km above our heads.

   2002, John Naylor, Out of the Blue: A 24-Hour Skywatcher's Guide, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 5

   Synonyms: dwindle, fade away, fade out, gutter out, spin down, tail away, trail off, peter