Definitions
Etymologies
- 1846 US miners’ slang, from 1812 peter ("to become exhausted"). Various speculative etymologies have been suggested, either from St. Peter (from sense of “rock”), French péter ("to fart"), or saltpeter (ingredient in gunpowder, hence used in mining). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“When the Luftwaffe's main daylight assault against Great Britain failed and raids began to peter out as Goring no longer cared to risk what was left of his forces, fighter pilots all over the country, hissing their favorite Huns, began asking for permission to use their Hurricanes for some - thing they had never attempted before.”
“Carefully he let Brian Kwok peter out and then he said casually, "Who's Joe?”
“She breathed surreptitiously on the window of the car and drew two circles with her finger; but they hardly intersected at all -- a mere moonlight infatuation which would soon peter out -- so she added ears and whiskers and turned them into Siamese-twin cats.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘peter out’.
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EN - Old Western Slang
a hog-killin' time, a lick and a promise, according to Hoyle, ace-high, all down but nine, arbuckle's, at sea, back down, balled up, bang-up, bazoo, bear sign and 212 more...
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Japnam's To dos
umbrage, moribund, vaunt, budge, trifling, heyday, precipitous, eminence, thwarting, peter out, tumult, tennybopper and 4 more...
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Words for financial performance
Business and financial journalists tend to use the same tired few words to describe what happens to economies, markets and prices. Enough of grow, soar, boom, crash, bust, collapse and so on. Let's...
swell, inflate, dilate, mount, accrue, magnify, amplify, blossom, fatten up, dwindle, dissipate, shrivel and 31 more...
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phrasal verbs: OUT
turn out, age out, blank out, fade out, opt out, freak out, lash out, storm out, single out, wring out, chicken out, pig out and 72 more...
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MyList
peter out, fraying, jump on the bandw..., indignation, eclectic, hung up, salutary, hoary, warped, glaring, blue-collar, concomitant and 105 more...
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tom, dick and harry
merry andrew, spotted dick, black jack, lazy susan, bloody mary, charley horse, doubting thomas, willy nilly, jolly roger, peg leg, catherine wheel, charlotte russe and 156 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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Rita's List of Words
preliminary, rudimentary, stance, conduit, locale, implicit, vicissitude, empirical, repository, apophthegm, apothegm, invariable and 431 more...
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Study list
fancymonger, conte, belie, prosaic, hackneyed, trite, wizened, enticing, thwarting, thwart, deadpan, encroachment and 22 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for peter out.
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