peter out
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word peter out. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word peter out, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say peter out in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word peter out you have here. The definition of the word peter out will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofpeter out, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From peter (“of a vein of ore: to be depleted of ore; to diminish to nothing”) + out. The etymology of peter is unknown; the following have been suggested:
- From peter (“to stop doing or saying something”).
- Since the word was first used in mining contexts, either:
- from French péter (“to explode; to break wind, fart”); or
- from (salt)peter, a variant of saltpetre (“potassium nitrate”), the key ingredient in gunpowder.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌpiːtɚ‿ˈaʊt/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌpitɚ‿ˈaʊt/,
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -aʊt
- Hyphenation: pe‧ter out
Verb
peter out (third-person singular simple present peters out, present participle petering out, simple past and past participle petered out)
- (intransitive, originally US) Synonym of peter (“to diminish to nothing, (originally) to refer to a vein of ore”)
- Synonym: spin down
- What started as a great effort ended up petering out to nothing.
- 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:
- 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.
- 2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New Infrastructure and New Rolling Stock”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 49:
- Soon, the overhead wires will reach here. My only hope is that common sense prevails, and that the overhead line equipment continues its march north rather than petering out, leaving a monument to short-term thinking and a lack of vision.
Translations
to diminish to nothing — see also dwindle
|
References
- ^ “peter, v.1”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 “peter, v.2”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “peter1, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- ^ “† salpetre, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2022.
Further reading
- “peter out”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, →ISBN.
- Gary Martin (1997–) “Peter out”, in The Phrase Finder.