peter
verb
- dwindle. (no particle)
noun
- penis
proper noun
- male given name
- biblical figure
- family name
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈpiːtə/ / /ˈpitɚ/ / [ˈpʰitɚ]
name
Etymology: From 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.
- A 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, and as Mrs Darling gazed she felt that it had an oddly cocky appearance.”
“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 like a piper's tune,”
- The leading Apostle in the New Testament: Saint Peter.
- The epistles of Peter in the New Testament of the Bible, 1 Peter and 2 Peter attributed to St. Peter.
- A surname originating as a patronymic.
- A census-designated place in Cache County, Utah, United States, named after Peter Maughan.
noun
Etymology: Unknown. Attested from the 18th century. The Canting Academy defines peeter as “A portmantle”; Green’s Dictionary of Slang list a variety of uses for peter – including trunk or portmanteau – in thieves’ cant in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The OED suggests that it may be related to St. Peter being the holder of the keys to God's Kingdom.
- A 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.”
- A 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 o'clock when tea was brought round and the cell door locked for the night.”
verb
Etymology: Clipping of blue peter (“play a high card to call for trump”). See further etymology there.
- Synonym of blue peter; to call for trump by throwing away a high card while holding a lower one.