Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An alternate withdrawing or concealing of the face or person and sudden peeping out again in a playful manner or in some unexpected place, often resorted to as an amusement for very small children, and generally accompanied by drawling out the word “bo” when concealed, while “peep” is abruptly enunciated on reappearing: as, to play bopeep. In the United States more generally known as peek-a-boo.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The act of looking out suddenly, as from behind a screen, so as to startle some one (as by children in play), or of looking out and drawing suddenly back, as if frightened.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a game played with young children; you hide your face and suddenly reveal it as you say boo!
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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All run-away sheep bound back bopeep, trailing their teenes behind them.
Finnegans Wake 2006
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But my opinion is that if you don't live with him, you had better live without him, and not go shilly-shallying and playing bopeep.
The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy 1884
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There was a charming mixture of all that is needed to make a garden perfect -- grass, velvety lawn rather; water, for a little brook ran tinkling in and out, playing bopeep among the bushes; trees, of course, and flowers, of course, flowers of every shade and shape.
The Cuckoo Clock Mrs. Molesworth 1880
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The clouds on which the saints repose are opaque and solid; cherubs in countless multitudes, a swarm of merry children, crawl about upon these feather-beds of vapour, creep between the legs of the apostles, and play at bopeep behind their shoulders.
Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Second Series John Addington Symonds 1866
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The clouds on which the saints repose are opaque and solid; cherubs in countless multitudes, a swarm of merry children, crawl about upon these feather-beds of vapour, creep between the legs of the apostles, and play at bopeep behind their shoulders.
Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete Series I, II, and III John Addington Symonds 1866
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But my opinion is that if you don’t live with him, you had better live without him, and not go shilly-shallying and playing bopeep.
The Woodlanders 2006
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