Word Direct Answers

What does "peep" mean?

Peep: 2. To begin to appear; to look forth from concealment; to make the first appearance. When flowers first peeped, and trees did blossoms bear. Dryden.

Additional senses

  1. 2.To look cautiously or slyly; to peer, as through a crevice; to pry. eep through the blanket of the dark. Shak. From her cabined loophole peep. Milton. Peep sight, an adjustable piece, pierced with a small hole to peep through in aiming, attached to a rifle or other firearm near the breech.
  2. 3.The cry of a young chicken; a chirp.
  3. 4.First outlook or appearance. Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn. Gray.
  4. 5.A sly look; a look as through a crevice, or from a place of concealment. To take t' other peep at the stars. Swift.
  5. 6.(Zoöl.) (a) Any small sandpiper, as the least sandpiper (Trigna minutilla). (b) The European meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis). Peep show, a small show, or object exhibited, which is viewed through an orifice or a magnifying glass. -- Peep-o'-day boys, the Irish insurgents of 1784; -- so called from their visiting the house of the loyal Irish at day break in search of arms. [Cant]

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