peter (out)

  • 1peter out — {v.}, {informal} To fail or die down gradually; grow less; become exhausted. * /After the factory closed, the town pretty well petered out./ * /The mine once had a rich vein of silver, but it petered out./ * /But as he thought of her, his anger… …

    Dictionary of American idioms

  • 2peter out — {v.}, {informal} To fail or die down gradually; grow less; become exhausted. * /After the factory closed, the town pretty well petered out./ * /The mine once had a rich vein of silver, but it petered out./ * /But as he thought of her, his anger… …

    Dictionary of American idioms

  • 3peter out — [v] dwindle, decrease abate, come to nothing*, die out*, diminish, drain, ebb, evaporate, fade, fail, give out, lessen, pall, rebate, recede, run dry, run out, stop, taper off, wane; concepts 105,698 Ant. develop, grow, increase …

    New thesaurus

  • 4peter out — index perish, subside Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …

    Law dictionary

  • 5peter out — verb 1. end weakly (Freq. 1) The music just petered out there was no proper ending • Syn: ↑taper off, ↑fizzle out, ↑fizzle • Hypernyms: ↑discontinue • …

    Useful english dictionary

  • 6peter out — phrasal verb [intransitive] Word forms peter out : present tense I/you/we/they peter out he/she/it peters out present participle petering out past tense petered out past participle petered out to gradually become smaller or weaker before coming… …

    English dictionary

  • 7peter out — in. to give out; to wear out. □ I’m about to peter out. I need a rest. □ What’ll we do when the money peters out? …

    Dictionary of American slang and colloquial expressions

  • 8peter out — gradually lose power, reduce, run out    After 6, sales began to peter out. We had fewer customers …

    English idioms

  • 9peter out — die down gradually, grow less strong The large crowd from the football game has begun to peter out and the streets around the stadium are becoming quiet now …

    Idioms and examples

  • 10peter out — /ˌpi:tər aυt/ verb to come to an end gradually ▪▪▪ ‘…economists believe the economy is picking up this quarter and will do better in the second half of the year, but most expect growth to peter out next year’ [Sunday Times] …

    Dictionary of banking and finance