PEER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Peer

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noun

Peer n.

1.

One of the same rank, quality, endowments, character, etc.; an equal; a match; a mate. "In song he never had his peer." "Shall they consort only with their peers?"

2.

A comrade; a companion; a fellow; an associate. "He all his peers in beauty did surpass."

3.

A nobleman; a member of one of the five degrees of the British nobility, namely, duke, marquis, earl, viscount, baron; as, a peer of the realm. "A noble peer of mickle trust and power."

House of Peers, The Peers, the British House of Lords. See Parliament.

Spiritual peers, the bishops and archibishops, or lords spiritual, who sit in the House of Lords.

verb

Peer v. t. To make equal in rank. (R.)

Peer v. t. To be, or to assume to be, equal. (R.)

Peer v. i. (past & past part. peered; pres. part. peering)

1.

To come in sight; to appear. (Poetic) "So honor peereth in the meanest habit." "See how his gorget peers above his gown!"

2.

To look narrowly or curiously or intently; to peep; as, the peering day. "Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads." "As if through a dungeon grate he peered."

See images of 'Peer'

Etymology of 'Peer'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Peer" Quotes from Famous Books

... his faith in his uncle and it was with a sweep of irritation now that he dug in his paddle—and veered sharply to the left as the rustle of reeds against the canoe warned him that he was close inshore somewhere. Mechanically he tried to peer through the dark. This ought to be the sandbar to the left of the Island Park ferry landing if he had not gone out of his reckoning. He waited for the fog-horn that presently bellowed loudly off to the left. If this were the sandbar ...

— Every Man for Himself • Hopkins Moorhouse

... I believe That this vile age of commerce and corruption Which you describe in very eloquent terms, Is still, upon the whole, the best that yet Has graced our earth. I think not more than you Am I in love with it; but, looking back, I fail to see a better, though I peer ...

— Mr. Faust • Arthur Davison Ficke

... was, he owned, important and arduous, he desired them to choose a committee from among themselves, who might draw up certain articles of faith; and communicate them afterwards to the parliament. The lords named the vicar-general, Cromwell, now created peer, the archbishops of Canterbury and York, the bishops of Durham, Carlisle, Worcester, Bath and Wells, Bangor, and Ely. The house might have seen what a hopeful task they had undertaken: this small committee itself was agitated with such diversity of opinion, that it could come to no conclusion. ...

— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C. - From Henry VII. to Mary • David Hume

... write Jargon is to be perpetually shuffling around in the fog and cotton-wool of abstract terms; to be for ever hearkening, like Ibsen's Peer Gynt, to the voice of the Boyg exhorting you to circumvent the difficulty, to beat the air because it is easier than to flesh your sword in the thing. The first virtue, the touchstone of a masculine style, is its use ...

— On the Art of Writing - Lectures delivered in the University of Cambridge 1913-1914 • Arthur Quiller-Couch

... the sounds of the mustangs' hoofs, as they circled swiftly about the cabin, sometimes turning quickly upon themselves, and at varying distances from the structure. Now and then one or two of the horsemen would rein up abruptly, as if striving to peer through the openings, or about to apply ...

— The Great Cattle Trail • Edward S. Ellis

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