Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Peer

Peer (pēr), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Peered; p. pr. & vb. n. Peering.] [OF. parir, pareir equiv. to F. paraître to appear, L. parere. Cf. Appear.] 1. To come in sight; to appear. [Poetic]

So honor peereth in the meanest habit. Shak.

See how his gorget peers above his gown! B. Jonson.

2. [Perh. a different word; cf. OE. piren, LG. piren. Cf. Pry to peep.] To look narrowly or curiously or intently; to peep; as, the peering day. Milton.

Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads. Shak.

As if through a dungeon grate he peered. Coleridge.

Peer, n. [OE. per, OF. per, F. pair, fr. L. par equal. Cf. Apparel, Pair, Par, n., Umpire.] 1. One of the same rank, quality, endowments, character, etc.; an equal; a match; a mate.

In song he never had his peer. Dryden.

Shall they consort only with their peers? I. Taylor.

2. A comrade; a companion; a fellow; an associate.

He all his peers in beauty did surpass. Spenser.

3. A nobleman; a member of one of the five degrees of the British nobility, namely, duke, marquis, earl, viscount, baron; as, a peer of the realm.

A noble peer of mickle trust and power. Milton.

House of Peers, The Peers, the British House of Lords. See Parliament. — Spiritual peers, the bishops and archibishops, or lords spiritual, who sit in the House of Lords.

Peer v. t. To make equal in rank. [R.] Heylin.

Peer v. t. To be, or to assume to be, equal. [R.]

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.