peep n.1
1. an eye; often in pl.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Life and Character of Moll King 12: I’ll derrick, my Blood, if I tout my Mort, I’ll tip her a Snitch about the Peeps and Nasous. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 62: You keep one peep open for ze coppare. | |
| It’s Up to You 75: The hungriest looking specimen of a seashore newsboy I ever put my peeps on. | |
| Brain Guy (1937) 37: You sonufabitch, so you got your peeps open for the main chance? | |
| Mouse Rap 109: [H]e’s sitting on the fender of a bad Benz with his peeps on full scope, checking the whole thing out. |
2. a look.
| (con. 1940s) ‘The Jive Bible’ at JiveOn.com 🌐 Cop and blow [...] You slap yo’self a good, long peep at Kenny, boy. Check his action – he gots a fly crutch, a diff’rent zoot suit fo’ every piece o’ seven an’ a rep dat come through de slammer trey hours befo’ he slide in. Kenny’s secret be dat he cop an’ blow, keepin’ de green flow. |
3. (Aus.) a peepshow.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Peepshow [ebook] Maxine was covering for us in the peeps. |
In compounds
(US) a voyeur.
| Black Players 66: I followed them home and watched him. I was a peep freak. I ain’t bullshittin’. | |
| House of Slammers 47: Danker was a peep-freak who was probably masturbating in front of a true sex symbol’s house. |
(US) a striptease club or place where women pose in booths covered by screens which can be opened for set periods by coin-in-the-slot payments.
| News Chronicle 23 Sept. 10/1: Jayne is [...] head stripper in the Pink Flamingo, a gilded peep-joint [OED]. | |
 | (ref. to 1984) N.Y. Nocturne 327: Dickson's most iconic image is Peep Land (1984), showing a man lighting a cigarette on the sidewalk outside a peep joint (color plate 27). The doorway is shaped like a giant keyhole. | |
| Women, Pleasure, Film 100: She works in a tawdry LA peep joint, where she poses in a chair or on a bed for male voyeurs equipped with cameras. |
In phrases
(US) at a glance.
| Out for the Coin 74: I want him to gi’me the gaze! [...] de look-over, see! I’m for him if he warms to me on the peep! |
(US black) to look around one’s immediate environs.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
(US) to run surveillance on.
| ‘Ten Carats of Lead’ in Black Mask Stories (2010) 223/2: You ain’t gonna lay the finger on the lads who did this job just by puttin’ the peep on the hockshops. |