peeper

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

peep +‎ -er.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

peeper (plural peepers)

  1. (colloquial, chiefly in the plural) The eye.
    Check out the gorgeous peepers on that guy!
  2. Someone who peeps; a spy.
    • 1604 (first performance), Tho[mas] Dekker, Iohn Webster [i.e., John Webster], VVest-vvard Hoe. [], London: [] Iohn Hodgets [], published 1607, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
      Who's there? peepers, intelligencers, eavesdroppers?
    • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
      If listeners seldom hear good of themselves, it is also true that peepers sometimes see more than they like; and Betty, the cook, as she reached the landing, glancing askance with ominous curiosity, beheld a spectacle, the sight of which nearly bereft her of her senses.
  3. (dated, slang, derogatory) A private detective.
    • 1944, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, The Big Sleep (screenplay)
      So you go to see this peeper, this Marlowe. That was your mistake.
  4. A peeping tom.
  5. An animal, such as some frogs, having a shrill, high-pitched call.
  6. (colloquial) A chicken just breaking the shell; a young bird.

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