peaking, ppl. a. Now dial.
(ˈpiːkɪŋ)
Also 7–9 peeking.
[f. peak v.1 + -ing2.]
1. Sneaking, skulking; mean-spirited; (sometimes, app. = prying: but in that sense app. belonging to peeking).
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. v. 71 The peaking Curnuto her husband..dwelling in a continual larum of ielousie. 1622 Massinger & Dekker Virg. Martir ii. i, I stole but a durty pudding..and the peaking chitface page hit me ith' teeth with it. 1650 T. Bayly Herba Parietis 51 That peaking devill, jealousie. 1668 Temple Let. to Ld. Arlington Wks. 1731 II. 169, I mean not Virtue, in a peaking, formal Presbyterian Sense. 1689 Hickeringill Ceremony-Monger Concl. iii. Wks. 1716 II. 470 Not every sneaking Register and peaking Surrogate could send a Soul to Satan. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb xiv. (1873) 84 What Tam had said was..that ‘Benjie was an orpiet, peeakin, little sinner’. |
2. Emaciated, sickly, drooping, pining, peaky.
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Peeking fellow;..a thin weazel faced fellow. 1706 Phillips, Peaking, that is of a sickly Constitution. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 8 Aug., Let. i, Poor Liddy is in a peaking way. I'm afraid this unfortunate girl is uneasy in her mind. 1823 Lady L. Stuart Lett. (1901) 325 She looks but peeking and has had a good deal of illness. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk., Peaking,..sickly; drooping: said of young poultry for the most part. ‘A wet May's bad for turkies; I've lost several, an' theer's more looks very peäkin’. |
Hence ˈpeakingly adv., in a pining or poor way; ˈpeakingness, sickliness, pining condition.
| 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Ceincture, They thinke their wiues liue peakingly at home, and pull strawes..or blow their fingers. 1727 Bailey, vol. II, Peakingly, sicklily, wearily. Peakingness, Sickliness, Unthrivingness. |