Peter definition
Their enthusiasm soon petered out.
- to pay a debt, obligation, etc. by creating or leaving unpaid another
Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
Origin of peter
- From the name Peter
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- Origin unknown
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- 1812, US miners' slang, Unknown. Various speculative etymologies have been suggested. One suggestion is that it comes from peter being an abbreviation of saltpeter, the key ingredient in gunpowder - when a mine was exhausted, it was “petered". Other derivations are from St. Peter (from sense of “rock"), or French péter (“to fart").
From Wiktionary
- From Latin Petrus, from Ancient Greek Πέτρος (Petros), from πέτρος (petros, “stone, rock"), related to πέτρα (petra)
From Wiktionary
- US, 1902, presumably from shared initial pe-.
From Wiktionary