▪ I. peep, n.1
(piːp)
Forms: 5 pepe, 5–6 Sc. peip, 6–7 peepe, 7– peep.
[f. peep v.1]
I. 1. An imitation or representation of the feeble shrill sound made by young birds, mice, etc.
| 1423 Jas. I Kingis Q. lvii, Now, suetë bird, say ones to me ‘pepe’. c 1440 Gesta Rom. i. xlv. 364 (Add. MS.) The Cate come beside, and herde the mouse Crie in the barme, pepe! pepe! c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. ii. (Town & C. Mouse) xxi, How fair ye sister? Cry peip, quhair euer ye be! 1636 Prynne Unbish. Tim. Ep. (1661) 26 As a Poppet, which springeth up and down, and cryeth peep, peep. 1822 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Praise Chimneysw., Their little professional notes sounding like the peep-peep of a young sparrow. 1825 Jamieson s.v., ‘He darna play peep’, he dare not let his voice be heard. 1880 Jefferies Gt. Estate 91 Then the hedge-sparrows..cry ‘peep-peep’ mournfully. |
II. n.
2. A name for this sound; a cheep or faint squeak. Now arch. or local.
| c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. xiii. (Frog & Mouse) i, Scho [the mouse] ran, cryand with mony pietious peip. 1513 Douglas æneis vi. v. 106 The todir ansueris with a petuus peip. 1562 J. Heywood Epigr. i. xxviii, I neuer heard..So muche as one peepe of one mouse. 1884 Roe Nat. Ser. Story vi, The first faint peep that should announce the senior chick. |
b. A slight sound or utterance; a single item or piece of information, chiefly in neg. contexts. Cf. pip n.2 1 b.
| 1903 in Eng. Dial. Dict. 1908 R. W. Chambers Firing Line xxiv. 411 Nobody's heard a peep from you. What on earth do you mean by this? 1928 S. Lewis Man who knew Coolidge i. 13 I'd never made a peep about how maybe it'd be a good stunt for him to go out and maybe earn a little money on the side. 1954 Picture Post 2 Jan. 34/3 ‘One more peep out of you, Mister, and I'll get the boys to push you and your b― stall in the oggin’, which was a nearby canal. a 1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 275 Not a peep came out of any of them. 1974 T. P. Whitney tr. Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipel. I. i. i. 10 They take you from a military hospital with a temperature of 102, as they did with Ans Bernshtein, and the doctor will not raise a peep about your arrest. 1977 P. Cosgrave Cheyney's Law v. 47, I know coppers... They're not supposed to be able to take it... But there's not been a peep out of him... Maybe..he's tougher than you are. |
† 3. A fancy name for a company or brood of chickens. Obs. rare.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans F vij, A Pepe of chykennys. |
4. A popular name of certain birds.
a. A young chicken. Cf. pee-pee1. b. U.S. A name given to several species of sandpiper; also to a species of rail, Rallus carolinus. c. A local name of the Meadow-pipit.
| a. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 311/1 A Cock first [called] a Peep. 1931 Amer. Speech VII. 20 Peeps. Little chickens. 1935 Ibid. X. 171/1 Peep. A chick just hatched, or a small chicken. 1943 Sun (Baltimore) 10 Aug. 10/3 The Boonsboro Times reports the birth there of a ‘peep’ with no eyes and no sign of an eye. |
| b. 1794 Morse Amer. Geog. 168 Peep, Rallus Carolinus. 1864 Sala in Daily Tel. 27 July, A ‘Peep’ is a very abject and idiotic little bird found in New England... He is given to staggering about in an imbecile and helpless manner... The..New England mind..has long since endorsed the locution ‘as tight as a peep’, to express an utter state of tipsification. 1873 Longfellow Wayside Inn iii. Prel. 77 The plover, peep, and sanderling. 1894 Newton Dict. Birds 702. |
| c. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 45 Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis)... Peep (Forfar.). |
Add: [II.] [2.] c. A brief, high-pitched sound produced mechanically or electronically; a bleep.
| 1957 Electronic Engin. XXIX. 127/1 It is a blocking oscillator of simple design, and makes a ‘peep’ each time the heart beats. 1971 Times 20 Dec. 2/5 The pips of the BBC time signal are to be joined by a peep at midnight on December 31. The reason is that Greenwich Mean Time needs adjusting to coincide with International Atomic Time. 1988 F. Weldon Leader of Band vi. 38 The phone gives three sharp peeps to remind me that time is money. |
▪ II. peep, n.2
(piːp)
Also 6 pype, 6–7 peepe.
[f. peep v.2]
1. a. An act of peeping; a look or glance as through a narrow aperture or from concealment; a surreptitious, furtive, or peering glance.
| 1730 Swift Traulus ii. 33 Hence that wild suspicious peep, Like a rogue that steals a sheep. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 779 He contrives A peep at Nature, when he can no more. 1786 F. Burney Let. T. Twining 10 July, When I come to town I shall never get a peep at you. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. iv, Snawley..took another peep at the little boy on the trunk. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xix. 172 You've only seen a peep through the curtain. 1873 Tristram Moab vii. 124 The nearer gorge..afforded a magnificent peep. |
b. fig. Said esp. of the first appearance of daylight, as in peep of dawn, peep of the morning, peep of day. Also, A tiny speck of light.
| 1530 Palsgr. 804/1 At daye pype, a la pipe du jour. 1579 Fenton Guicciard. xiii. (1599) 608 He came by the peepe of the morning to the top of the mountaine. 1616 Lane Contn. Sqr.'s T. viii. 101 From morninges peepe till high midd noone. 1750 Gray Elegy 98 Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn. 1882 Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 246 There was no light..but a little peep from a lamp. |
c. = peep-bo. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1677 Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 423 When Satan makes nice with men..He plays at peep with them, that he may make them more earnest to follow him. 1903 in Eng. Dial. Dict. (cited from N.W. Derbyshire). |
d. dial. and U.S. After a negative, a short interval (of sleep), a wink.
| 1905 R. Beach Pardners (1912) ii. 49 Most people called him crazy, 'cause he had fits of goin' for days without a peep. |
2. transf. a. A small aperture. b. A crevice for looking through; spec. the slit in the leaf-sight of a rifle: see peep-sight in 4. c. dial. An eye.
| a 1825 Balankin iii. in Child Ballads iv. xciii. (1886) 323/1 At the sma peep of a window Balankin crap in. 1847–78 Halliwell, Peep, an eye. Somerset. |
† 3. A mode of cheating at dice: see quot. Obs.
| 1711 Puckle Club 22 Gamesters have the top, the peep, eclipse, thumbing. Note. Shaking the dice so forward in the box, that by an apparent face, they know when to clap down, so as to throw the reverse. |
4. attrib. and Comb. [some of these are from the verb-stem, peep v.2]: peep by-play, peep-glass, peep-stone; peep hawk (dial.), a kestrel; peep-joint, a place where striptease is performed; peep-machine, a machine through which a peep-show is seen; peep nicking-machine: see quot.; peep-sight, a backsight for rifles with a peep for bringing the foresight into line with the object aimed at: see 2 b; peep-toe attrib., designating a kind of shoe whose tip is cut away allowing the toes to be seen; also absol.; also peep-toed a.
| 1659 R. Wilde Poems (1870) 10 Dark-lantern language, and his *peep by-play. |
| 1892 Lumsden Sheep-head 196 Can ye wi' thy *peep-glass explore The all eterne? |
| 1880 Antrim & Down Gloss., *Peep hawk, the kestrel. |
| 1960 News Chron. 23 Sept. 10/1 Jayne is..head stripper in the Pink Flamingo, a gilded *peep-joint. |
| 1938 G. Greene Brighton Rock iii. ii. 117 The motor-track, the shooting booths and *peep machines. Ibid. iii. iii. 130 Framed snapshots of King Edward VII (Prince of Wales) in a yachting cap and a background of peep machines. |
| 1884 Knight Mech. Dict. Suppl., *Peep Nicking-Machine, a special gun tool which forms the peep in the leaf of a rifle sight. |
| 1881 Greener Gun 151 An elevating Vernier *peep-sight attached to the stock of the rifle. |
| 1939 Vogue 3 May 5 (Advt.), Blue calf thonging and heel sets off this *peep-toe sandal in blue calf, 45/9. 1940 Ibid. June 14 (Advt.), Only Joyce..would think of using duck⁓skin and calf in this peep-toe creation for your every leisure hour. 1957 Observer 25 Aug. 11/7 A young French lady named Tracy, in peeptoe shoes and ice-blue, skin-tight gown with a good deal of cleavage. 1960 News Chron. 6 June 5/2 A blade in a tweed coat and peep-toe sandals. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 133 Peep⁓toe, a rather coy name for any shoe, usually court or sling-back, from which the toe-cap is cut away to expose part of the toes. 1969 E. Wilson Hist. Shoe Fashions xx. 247 The war years of 1939–45 saw..a heavy restriction in shoe-making materials... Peep-toes and big chunky trimmings decorated the very popular court shoe. 1976 Vogue 15 Mar. 77 Pale blue and navy peep-toe sandals. |
| 1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xix. 173 A really pretty pair of *peep-toed, high-heeled sandals. |
Add: [2.] d. A private investigator or spy, esp. one who plants secret cameras; also, such a camera used for surveillance. Cf. peeper n.2 1 b.
| 1974 R. B. Parker Godwulf Manuscript x. 78 Don't ride me, Peep, you'll find yourself looking up at the snow. 1975 Observer (Colour Suppl.) 23 Nov. 25/3 Peep, a specialist in surreptitious photography. 1976 ‘A. Hall’ Kobra Manifesto iv. 52 Fitzalan was going to have his work cut out to make a rendezvous with me and keep the peep on the objective at the same time. 1977 J. Gardner Werewolf Trace xxi. 177 The peeps were closed-circuit television cameras, remote-controlled and dug into the walls. |
▪ III. peep, n.3
Early form of pip n.2
▪ IV. peep, n.4 U.S.
(piːp)
[see quot. 1943.]
= jeep n.
Sources are divided as to whether peep should designate a vehicle larger or smaller than a jeep, but are agreed in referring both terms to the same type of vehicle.
| 1941 N.Y. Herald Tribune 28 June 14/3 Peep (son of a jeep) means a bantam car. 1941 N.Y. Times 26 Oct. xx. 3/2 The one-half ton ‘jeep’ command reconnaissance car, its name taken from the model designation ‘G.P.’, and one-quarter ton ‘peep’ reconnaissance cars are combat vehicles. 1943 Amer. N. & Q. III. 137/1, I laid down an editorial ukase that the 1/4-ton truck was thereafter to be the ‘jeep’ and the ½-ton the ‘peep’. 1946 Amer. Speech XXI. 245 In the Armored Force..the 1/4-ton 4 by 4 is always a peep, the term ‘jeep’ being applied to the command and reconnaissance car. 1953 M. Bury Rolling Wheels 242 G.I.'s called a command car a jeep, called what you call a jeep, a peep—and bicycles were called creeps! 1962 Amer. Speech XXXVII. 78 The peep proved as versatile as the jeep, and had the advantages of a lower silhouette, less gasoline consumption, cheaper production, and the occupation of less cargo space when shipped. |
▪ V. peep, v.1 Now arch. or local.
(piːp)
Forms: 5–6 pepe, 6 Sc. peip, 6–7 peepe, (6 pyep, 8–9 piep), 7– peep.
[Late ME. pēpe-n, which began c 1400 to take the place of the earlier pīpe-n, pype-n, found in same sense a 1250 (see pipe v.1) = OF. piper (12th c. in Godef. Compl.): cf. L. pīpāre, also pīpiāre, pīpīre, It. pipare and pipiare, all said of birds, also F. pipier, ‘pépier to peepe, cheepe, or pule, as a young bird in the neast’ (Cotgr.) Cf. also Du., LG., mod.Ger. piepen, Lith. p{yacu}pti, Czech p{iacu}pati, in same sense; also Gr. πῖπος, L. pīpio a young ‘peeping’ bird, Ger. piepvogel; all of echoic origin. Pepe(n, peep, corresponds in vowel to F. pépier, but whether connected with it, or independently formed in Eng., is not clear: see pipe v.1]
1. a. intr. To utter the weak shrill sound proper to young birds, mice, and some kinds of frogs; to cheep, chirp, squeak.
| c 1403 Lydg. Temple of Glas 180 Maydens ȝung of age, That pleined sore with peping & with rage. a 1530 Heywood Love (Brandl) 108 Were it but a mouse, lo, sholde pepe in your ere. 1552 Huloet, Pyep like a chycken, crane, or fawcon, pipio. 1566 Painter Pal. Pleas. I. 72 The yonge larkes..peping and chirping about their mother. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 298 By the 20 day..ye shall heare the chick to peepe within the verie shell. 1611 Bible Isa. x. 14 There was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped [1885 R.V. chirped]. 1648–78 Hexham, Piepen als een muys, to Peep like a mous. 1706 Phillips, To Piep, to cry like a chicken. 1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 378/2 A brood of chickens peeped in a coop in one corner. 1885 Scribner's Mag. XXX. 730/1 Sometimes a nest of young chimney-swallows..would fall upon the hearth, ‘pieping’ for human sympathy. |
† b. To sound shrilly; said of music. Obs.
| 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. i. 361 Proportion sounding dulcest, hard I peip. |
2. transf. a. Of persons etc.: To speak in a weak, querulous, shrill tone; to squeak; to ‘sing small’. (Chiefly contemptuous.)
| c 1550 Lyndesay Pedder Coffeis 23 Peipand peurly with peteouss graniss. 1570 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) 1904/1 Frier Bucknham..was so dashed, that neuer after he durst peepe outof the Pulpit agaynst M. Latymer. 1611 Bible Isa. viii. 19 Wizards that peepe [R.V. chirp] and that mutter. 1625 B. Jonson Staple of N. ii. i, O, the only oracle That ever peep'd or spake out of a doublet. 1736 Disc. Witchcraft 12 These Oraclers, when they pretend to receive Answers from the Dead, would piep like Chickens. 1737 Ramsay Sc. Prov. xlv. (1750) 123 Ye're no sae poor as ye peep. 1802 Leyden Ld. Soulis xlvi, Young Branxholm peep'd and puirly spake, ‘O sic a death is no for me!’ 1863 W. Phillips Speeches vi. 136 No one has ever peeped or muttered. |
b. To betray a confidence; to inform. Also trans.
| 1911 J. London Let. 6 Mar. (1966) 340 The convicts are few and far between who come out and dare to peep a word of what they know. Ibid. I have known ex-cons who became dead for peeping. 1950 H. E. Goldin Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 154/2 Peep, to betray associates; to give information to the police. |
▪ VI. peep, v.2
(piːp)
Forms: 5–6 pepe, 6–7 peepe, 7– peep.
[Not known till late in 15th c.; not in Promptorium or Catholicon. The earlier synonyms were keke (Promp.), and peke, in 14th c. kike and pike, to which pepe had probably some phonetic analogy: see peek v.1]
1. intr. To look through a narrow aperture, as through the half-shut eyelids or through a crevice, chink, or small opening into a larger space; hence, to look furtively, slyly, or pryingly.
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. xiii. 581 Mak. Nay, do way: he slepys. iijus pastor. Me thynk he pepys. 1535 Coverdale Song Sol. ii. 9 He loketh in at the wyndowe, & pepeth thorow the grate. ― Ecclus. xxi. 23 A foole wyll pepe in at y⊇ wyndow [1611 peepe in at the doore] in to the house. 1570 Levins Manip. 70/15 To Péepe, inspicere. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 89 When thou wak'st, with thine owne fooles eies peepe. 1596 ― Merch. V. i. i. 52 Some that will euermore peepe through their eyes, And laugh like Parrats at a bag-piper. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. viii. 241 Those remote and vast bodies were formed, not merely upon our account to be peept at through an optick glass. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 126 We had an opportunity just to peep into it. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. xi, I began to take Courage, and to peep abroad again. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 319 The little bird that peeps in at the window. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. ii. vi, One peeps direct into the very bosom of that Twelfth Century. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life v. (1861) 108 We must not peep and eavesdrop at palace doors. |
| fig. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. i. 39 And low, where dawning day doth never peepe, His dwelling is. |
† b. Obs. slang. (See quot. and cf. peepy a.)
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, As the Cull Peeps let's Mill him, when the Man is a Sleep, let's Kill him. |
2. fig. To emerge or protrude a very short distance into view (as from concealment); to begin to appear or show itself: chiefly said of natural objects, as daylight, flowers, distant eminences, etc. Often more distinctly fig. from 1: To appear as if looking out or over something.
| 1535 Coverdale Jer. vi. 1 A plage and a greate misery pepeth out [Wyclif iws seen, 1611 appeareth, 1885 R.V. looketh forth] from the North. 1595 T. P. Goodwine Blanchardyn ii. I ij, When the day began to peepe, they tooke their horses and rode to Tormaday. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. iv. 53 No Vessell can peepe forth: but 'tis as soone Taken as seene. 1628 Gaule Pract. The. (1629) 25 So was it the same Christ that peeped in the Law, through Types and Figures. 1634 Milton Comus 140 Ere..The nice Morn on th' Indian steep From her cabin'd loop hole peep. 1709 Pope Ess. Crit. 232 Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise. 1770 Goldsm. Des. Vill. 330 Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 6 The steeple peeping o'er the wood's dark brow. 1857 W. Collins Dead Secret vi. i, The stem of a pipe peeped out of the breast-pocket of his coat. |
b. Of a plant, seed, etc.: To begin to show itself above the soil; to sprout.
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. Wks. (Grosart) IV. 185 Those blossomes which peepe foorth in the beginning of the Spring, are frost-bitten and die. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 9 When your Plants begin to peep, Earth them up. 1765 Earl of Haddington Forest-trees 16 It [hornbeam] lies as long in the seedbed before it peeps as the ash. 1873 Bryant New & Old i, Flowers, that were buds but yesterday, Peep from the ground where'er I pass. |
c. Of a mental characteristic or the like: To show itself a little unintendedly, to come slightly into view unconsciously.
| 1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Familye of Love, Brief Descr., The doctrine of H.N. began to pepe out. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iii. 148 Your youth And the true blood which peepes fairely through 't. 1826 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Genteel Style Writ., The way the retired statesman peeps out in his essays. 1881 M. E. Herbert Edith 8 Little indications of selfishness and heartlessness would peep out now and then. |
3. trans. To cause to appear slightly; to put forth or protrude (the head, etc.) out from a hiding-place. b. To cause or allow (the eye) to peep. rare.
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 238 There is not a daungerous Action can peepe out his head, but I am thrust vpon it. 1669 Dryden Tyran. Love iii. i, This love..Peeps out his coward head to dare my age. 1788 Disinterested Love I. 115 Hiding himself in the belfry, and occasionally peeping a bit of his head out. 1818 Keats Endym. i. 871 A well Whose patient level peeps its crystal eye Right upward. |
4. trans. To spy out by peeping. rare.
| 1817–18 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 235 Telling them the story of Baker's peeping out the name, marked on the sack, which the old woman was wearing as a petticoat. |