Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To look intently, searchingly, or with difficulty. synonym: gaze.
  • intransitive verb To be partially visible; show.
  • noun A person who has equal standing with another or others, as in rank, class, or age.
  • noun A nobleman.
  • noun A man who holds a peerage by descent or appointment.
  • noun A computer participating in a peer-to-peer network.
  • noun Archaic A companion; a fellow.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To play the peer; be a peer or equal; take or be of equal rank.
  • To make equal to or of the same rank with.
  • To look narrowly or sharply: commonly implying searching or an effort to see: as, to peer into the darkness.
  • To appear; come in sight.
  • To appear; seem.
  • noun One of the same rank, qualities, endowments, character, or the like; an equal; a match.
  • noun A companion; a fellow; an associate.
  • noun A nobleman of an especial dignity.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To make equal in rank.
  • noun One of the same rank, quality, endowments, character, etc.; an equal; a match; a mate.
  • noun A comrade; a companion; a fellow; an associate.
  • noun A nobleman; a member of one of the five degrees of the British nobility, namely, duke, marquis, earl, viscount, baron.
  • noun the British House of Lords. See Parliament.
  • noun the bishops and archibishops, or lords spiritual, who sit in the House of Lords.
  • transitive verb rare To be, or to assume to be, equal.
  • intransitive verb Poetic To come in sight; to appear.
  • intransitive verb To look narrowly or curiously or intently; to peep.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level equal (to that of something else).
  • noun A noble with a hereditary title, i.e., a peerage, and in times past, with certain rights and privileges not enjoyed by commoners.
  • verb Internet To carry communications traffic terminating on one's own network on an equivalency basis to and from another network, usually without charge or payment. Contrast with transit where one pays another network provider to carry one's traffic.
  • verb intransitive To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.
  • noun Someone who pees, someone who urinates.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a nobleman (duke or marquis or earl or viscount or baron) who is a member of the British peerage
  • noun a person who is of equal standing with another in a group
  • verb look searchingly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English piren (probably from Frisian piren) and peren (short for aperen, to appear; see appear).]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French per, equal, peer, from Latin pār; see perə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman peir, Old French per, from Latin par.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Variant of piren, Middle English peren

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

pee +‎ -er

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Examples

Comments

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  • "I hear we'd go before a jury of our peers, and I've always seeded generously."

    March 26, 2009

  • Janus-word: peer as an equal vs. peer as an elite, a superior.

    August 23, 2014