peter out v.
1. to give out, to fade away.
![]() | Puddleford 84: He ‘hoped this ’spectable meeting war n’t going to Peter-out’ [DA]. | |
, , | ![]() | Sl. Dict. 199: PETER, to run short, or give out. |
![]() | Great West and Pacific Coast 73: ‘Pay-streak’ means a vein of gold or silver quartz, that it will pay to work. When it ceases to pay, it is said to ‘peter out’. | |
![]() | Camps in the Rockies 126: The forest soon ‘pettered out’ into detached patches. | |
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 14/3: You should have said – ‘Without a doubt, / Though strange the day in pulling history, / Our Clifford has quite ‘petered out’ / Another droll ‘aquatic mystery!’ / His heart was in his boots, they say – / Well, there is room there, any day!’. | |
![]() | ‘The Golden Graveyard’ in Roderick (1972) 343: Log Paddock was ‘petering’. There were a few claims still being worked. | |
![]() | Out West Oct. 241: ‘Up the flume’ was handed down to us by the forty-niners, as was ‘petered out;’ ‘up Salt Creek,’ a synonymous expression, defies research. | |
![]() | letter 30 Nov. in Paige (1971) 205: Yes, I saw your article, if you mean the one that says what a delightful writer I used to be, and what a shame I have probably petered out. | |
![]() | Thieves Like Us (1999) 117: All this was built right after the War [...] then it petered out. | |
![]() | Body in the Library (1959) 102: Thought I’d found another likely starter – but it petered out. | |
![]() | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Act I: You know, our sex life didn’t just peter out in the usual way, it was cut off short. | |
![]() | Bunch of Ratbags 283: I attained a degree of improvement, but after four weeks, the improvement petered out. | |
![]() | Cutter and Bone (2001) 195: I figured when nothing happened [...] the whole thing would just peter out. Alex would lose interest, give it up. | |
![]() | Glitter Dome (1982) 239: The Bentley search was also petering out. | |
![]() | Observer Rev. 17 Oct. 3: Affairs, she says, tend to ‘peter out’ after the first few months. |
2. to tire, to feel exhausted.
![]() | Tramping with Tramps 388: I was petered out. | |
![]() | Boy’s Own Paper XL:1 34: I’m mos’ petered out. | |
![]() | Dict. Amer. Sl. | |
![]() | Runyon on Broadway (1954) 258: He is all petered out. | ‘Dancing Dan’s Christmas’ in|
![]() | in Limerick (1953) 21: A plumber whose name was Ten Brink / Plumbed the cook as she bent o’er the sink. / Her resistance was stout, / And Ten Brink petered out / With his pipe-wrench all limber and pink. | |
![]() | Down in the Holler 101: Petered out means simply exhausted. |
3. to die.
![]() | Arizona Nights 142: Since they took to wearing clothes they’ve been petering out, and dying of dirt and assorted diseases. | |
![]() | Dames Don’t Care (1960) 52: One day this guy peters out. He givesa big howl and hands in his dinner pail. |
4. to reject, to scapegoat.
![]() | Lonely Plough (1931) 106: I’m still smarting at the way they petered me out. |
In derivatives
(Can./US) exhausted.
![]() | Western Avernus (1924) 160: I tramped into that little settlement [...] ‘peted,’ done up. |