peer

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To look intently, searchingly, or with difficulty. See Synonyms at gaze.
2. v. To be partially visible; show: The moon peered from behind dark clouds.
3. n. A person who has equal standing with another or others, as in rank, class, or age: children who are easily influenced by their peers.
4. n. A nobleman.
5. n. A man who holds a peerage by descent or appointment.
6. n. Archaic A companion; a fellow: "To stray away into these forests drear,/Alone, without a peer” ( John Keats).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To look narrowly or sharply: commonly implying searching or an effort to see: as, to peer into the darkness.
2. To appear; come in sight.
3. To appear; seem.
4. n. One of the same rank, qualities, endowments, character, or the like; an equal; a match.
5. n. A companion; a fellow; an associate.
6. n. A nobleman of an especial dignity. Specifically— In Great Britain and Ireland, a holder of the title of one of the five degrees of nobility—duke, marquis, earl, viscount, baron; also, one of the two English archbishops, or one of those twenty-four bishops who are entitled to sit in the House of Lords. The former class are distinguished as lords temporal, the latter as lords spiritual. The House of Peers of House of Lords consists of— all peers of the Untied Kingdom (corresponding to peers of England prior to 1707 and peers of Great Britain from 1707 to January 1st, 1801) who are of full age; the representative Scottish peers (see peer of Scotland), elected for each parliament; the Irish representative peers (see peer of Ireland), elected for life; and the lords spiritual. Many of the peers of Scotland and of Ireland, however, are also peers of England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom, and sit in the House of Lords under the titles thus held.
7. To play the peer; be a peer or equal; take or be of equal rank.
8. To make equal to or of the same rank with.

Wiktionary

1. v. To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.
2. v. 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.
3. n. Somebody or something who/that is at an equal level.
4. n. A noble with a hereditary title, i.e, a peerage, and in times past, with certain rights and privileges not enjoyed by commoners.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To come in sight; to appear.
2. v. To look narrowly or curiously or intently; to peep.
3. n. One of the same rank, quality, endowments, character, etc.; an equal; a match; a mate.
4. n. A comrade; a companion; a fellow; an associate.
5. n. A nobleman; a member of one of the five degrees of the British nobility, namely, duke, marquis, earl, viscount, baron.
6. v. To make equal in rank.
7. v. To be, or to assume to be, equal.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a nobleman (duke or marquis or earl or viscount or baron) who is a member of the British peerage
2. n. a person who is of equal standing with another in a group
3. v. look searchingly