peter out

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English[edit]

WOTD – 4 April 2023

Etymology[edit]

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:

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

peter out (third-person singular simple present peters out, present participle petering out, simple past and past participle petered out)

  1. (intransitive, originally US) Synonym of peter (“originally (mining), of a vein of ore: to be depleted of ore; now (generally), to diminish to nothing; to dwindle, to trail off”)
    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[edit]

to diminish to nothing — See also translations at dwindle

References[edit]

  1. ^ “peter, v.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 “peter, v.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “peter1, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “† salpetre, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2022.

Further reading[edit]

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