Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to give out, to fade away.

1854		H.H. Riley Puddleford 84: He ‘hoped this ’spectable meeting war n’t going to Peter-out’ [DA].
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 199: PETER, to run short, or give out.
1877		J.F. Rusling 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’.
1882		W.A. Baillie-Grohman Camps in the Rockies 126: The forest soon ‘pettered out’ into detached patches.
1885		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!’.
1899–1900		H. Lawson ‘The Golden Graveyard’ in Roderick (1972) 343: Log Paddock was ‘petering’. There were a few claims still being worked.
1911		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.
1926		E. Pound 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.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 117: All this was built right after the War [...] then it petered out.
1942		A. Christie Body in the Library (1959) 102: Thought I’d found another likely starter – but it petered out.
1955		T. Williams 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.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 283: I attained a degree of improvement, but after four weeks, the improvement petered out.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 195: I figured when nothing happened [...] the whole thing would just peter out. Alex would lose interest, give it up.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 239: The Bentley search was also petering out.
1999		Observer Rev. 17 Oct. 3: Affairs, she says, tend to ‘peter out’ after the first few months.

2. to tire, to feel exhausted.

1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 388: I was petered out.
1917		Boy’s Own Paper XL:1 34: I’m mos’ petered out.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Dancing Dan’s Christmas’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 258: He is all petered out.
1942		in G. Legman 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.
1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 101: Petered out means simply exhausted.

3. to die.

1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 142: Since they took to wearing clothes they’ve been petering out, and dying of dirt and assorted diseases.
1937		P. Cheyney 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.

1914

C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 106: I’m still smarting at the way they petered me out.