peer pressure

English[edit]

peer +‎ pressure. First use appears c. 1957 in the publications of Ruth Strang.

peer pressure (usually uncountable, plural peer pressures)

Inducement or influence by one's peers.
She vowed to give up drinking during the exam period, but eventually succumbed to peer pressure and was out drinking with her friends within a week of the resolution.
- 2020 April 9, Ian Boyd, “We practised for a pandemic, but didn’t brace”, in Nature, volume 580, number 7802, page 9:
  A successful response uses social forces such as peer pressure and altruism to help people adapt to changing circumstances. It delivers messages and support that promote self-reliance rather than encourage people to fall back on stressed state support.

inducement by one's peers

peer pressure (third-person singular simple present peer pressures, present participle peer pressuring, simple past and past participle peer pressured)

(transitive, informal) To induce or influence one's peers.
He was peer-pressured into taking drugs.