Peeping-tom definition

pēpĭng
A person who gets pleasure, especially sexual pleasure, from secretly watching others; a voyeur.
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A person who watches another without the other's permission and usually without the other's knowledge, especially for the purpose of deriving sexual pleasure from the sight of the other.
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A person who gets pleasure, esp. sexual pleasure, from watching others, esp. furtively.
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A person who gets pleasure, especially sexual pleasure, from secretly watching others; a voyeur.
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(eng. legend, person, proper) A Coventry tailor who was struck blind after peeping at Lady Godiva.
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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
peeping-tom
Plural:
peeping-toms

Origin of peeping-tom

  • After the legendary Peeping Tom of Coventry, England, who was the only person to see the naked Lady Godiva

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Peeping Tom, a tailor in the legend of Lady Godiva who watched Godiva riding naked.

    From Wiktionary

Peeping-tom Sentence Examples

  • Both were as anxious as I to hear the results of Howie's attempt to visit the Vermont bike-riding peeping Tom.

  • One person disobeyed her proclamation, a tailor, ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom.

  • The wooden effigy of Peeping Tom which, since 1812, has looked out on the world from a house at the north-west corner of Hertford Street, Coventry, represents a man in armour, and was probably an image of St George.

  • It was some local peeping Tom by the sound of it.

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Words near peeping-tom in the Dictionary