peeper

English

Etymology

peep +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpiːpə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpipɚ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːpə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: peep‧er

Noun

peeper (plural peepers)

1. (colloquial, chiefly in the plural) The eye.

   Check out the gorgeous peepers on that guy!

2. Someone who peeps; a spy.
   • 1604 (first performance), Tho[mas] Dekker, Iohn Webster [i.e., John Webster], VVest-vvard Hoe. […], London: […] [William Jaggard], and to be sold by Iohn Hodgets […], published 1607, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     Who's there? peepers, intelligencers, eavesdroppers?

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     If listeners seldom hear good of themselves, it is also true that peepers sometimes see more than they like; and Betty, the cook, as she reached the landing, glancing askance with ominous curiosity, beheld a spectacle, the sight of which nearly bereft her of her senses.

3. (dated, slang, derogatory) A private detective.
   • 1944, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, The Big Sleep (screenplay)

     So you go to see this peeper, this Marlowe. That was your mistake.

4. A peeping tom.
5. An animal, such as some frogs, having a shrill, high-pitched call.
6. (colloquial) A chicken just breaking the shell; a young bird.

Derived terms

• leaf peeper
• pixel-peeper
• pixel peeper
• spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer)

 

Translations

eye (colloquial)

• Bulgarian: око (bg) n (oko), зъркел m (zǎrkel)
• Italian: occhio (it) m, occhi (it) m pl
• Spanish: farol m, clisos m pl
• Russian: морга́ло (ru) n (morgálo), chiefly plural: морга́ла (ru) n pl (morgála), гляде́лка (ru) f (gljadélka)

See also

• Spring peeper on Wikipedia.Wikipedia