peter

noun

1. radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter P.
2. (slang)The penis.

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

   “... 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.'"”

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

3. (UK, slang)A safe.

   “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.”

   “The forty quid! Gone! ’Ow could she ’ave gotten in there? The peter ain’t broke, no sign of it bein’ bettied, and I the only one w’ the key.”

4. (UK, slang)A prison cell.

   “[…] 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.”

name

1. (countable, uncountable)A male given name from Ancient Greek.

   “She knew of no Peter, and yet he was here and there in John and Michael's minds, while Wendy's began to be scrawled all over with him. The name stood out in bolder letters than any of the other words, and as Mrs Darling gazed she felt that it had an oddly cocky appearance.”

   “What splendid names for boys there are! / There's Carol like a rolling car, / And Martin like a flying bird, / And Adam like the Lord's First Word, / And Raymond like the Harvest Moon, / And Peter like a piper's tune,”

   “Reps. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Peter Meijer, a Republican from Michigan, said in a joint statement Tuesday that they had traveled to Kabul “to conduct oversight on the mission to evacuate Americans and our allies” and that the trip had been conducted in secret “to minimize the risk and disruption to the people on the ground.””

2. (countable, uncountable)The leading Apostle in the New Testament: Saint Peter.
3. (countable, uncountable)The epistles of Peter in the New Testament of the Bible, 1 Peter and 2 Peter attributed to St. Peter.
4. (countable, uncountable)A surname originating as a patronymic.
5. (countable, uncountable)A census-designated place in Cache County, Utah, United States, named after Peter Maughan.

verb

1. (intransitive)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.

   “I found a veinlet about 15 in. wide and very rich in gold. Trenching along its outcrop showed that it extended about 100 ft. and then pinched out altogether. A winze sunk on the veinlet showed that it "petered out" entirely at 25 or 30 ft.”

   “Mersey Street is particularly attractive. Running up from the bay, it passes between terraced cottages before petering into a footpath that leads over the headland to a golf course and the dune-backed sands of Black Rock.”

   “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.”

   “My words petered away.”

2. (intransitive)Synonym of blue peter; to call for trump by throwing away a high card while holding a lower one.