peter

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpiːtə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpitɚ/, /ˈpiɾɚ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːtə(ɹ)
• Homophone: pita (non-rhotic accents), Peter
• Hyphenation: pe‧ter

US, 1902, presumably from shared initial pe-.[1] Compare the use of other men’s names as a slang term for the penis, e.g., dick, willy, John Thomas, etc.

peter (plural peters)

1. (slang) The penis.
   • 1997: Shelby Scates, Warren G. Magnuson and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century America, page 141:

     You smile, act polite, shake their hands, then cut off their peters and put them in your pocket.” “Yes, Mr. President,” answered O'Brien.

   • 1998: Michael Robert Gorman, The Empress Is a Man: Stories from the Life of Jose Sarria, page 199:

     ... and you were there, and they acted like you weren't even born yet?' "I'd say, 'Yes, their memories are as long as their peters.'"

   • 2002: Celia H Miles, Mattie's Girl: An Appalachian Childhood, page 64:

     “It's to put on their peters when they don't want to make babies,” she said.

peter (plural peters)

1. (UK, slang) A safe.

   Synonym: pete

   • 1963, Kenneth Ullyett, Crime out of Hand, page 109:

     It used to be simple to 'crack a peter'. Safe-breaking (blowing or cracking a 'peter') in the past three or four years shows that the expert cracksman knows his job.

• peterman

Unknown; the following etymologies have been suggested:

• From peter (“to stop (doing or saying something)”) (slang, obsolete, rare).[2][3]
• Since the word was first used in mining contexts, either:[3]
  • from French péter (“to explode; to break wind, fart”) (slang), from pet (“emission of digestive gases from the anus, flatus, fart”) (slang), from Latin pēditum (“flatus, fart”), from pēdō (“to break wind, fart”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pesd- (“to break wind softly”), probably imitative; or
  • from (salt)peter, a variant of saltpetre (“potassium nitrate”) (the key ingredient in gunpowder), from Middle English salpeter, salpetre [and other forms][4] with the first element influenced by salt, from Old French salpetre (modern French salpêtre), from Medieval Latin salpetra, from Latin sāl petrae (literally “salt of stone”) (as potassium nitrate occurs encrusted on some stones), from sāl (“salt”) + petrae (the nominative or vocative plural of petra (“rock; stone”), from Ancient Greek πέτρᾱ (pétrā, “rock formation; stone”)).[5]

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

1. (intransitive, originally US) Chiefly followed by out: originally (mining), of a vein of ore: to be depleted of ore; now (generally), to diminish to nothing; to dwindle, to trail off.
   • 2014 August 23, Neil Hegarty, “Hidden City: Adventures and Explorations in Dublin by Karl Whitney, review: ‘a necessary corrective’ [print version: Re-Joycing in Dublin, page R25]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-05-20:

     Whitney is absorbed especially by Dublin's unglamorous interstitial zones: the new housing estates and labyrinths of roads, watercourses and railways where the city peters into its commuter belt.

   • 2021, Helen Fisher, Faye, Faraway, page 241:

     My words petered away.

Originally used independently, but today most often in the derived phrase peter out.

• peter out

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

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

1. (card games, intransitive) Synonym of blue peter

peter (plural peters)

1. (UK, prison slang) A prison cell.
   • 1955, Rupert Croft-Cooke, The Verdict of You All, page 82:

     […] the ceremony of 'slopping out', breakfast, across to the main library from nine till half-past eleven, back to my peter for the mid-day meal and two hours' break, then the library again till five o'clock when tea was brought round and the cell door locked for the night.

• Peret, Petre, Prete, peert, petre, repet.

From Middle Dutch peter, from petrijn, from Latin patrīnus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpeː.tər/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pe‧ter
• Rhymes: -eːtər

peter m (plural peters, feminine meter)

1. A godfather.

   Synonym: peetoom

• Negerhollands: pepee