peter out
Syllables: pe·ter outUK/ˌpiːtəɹ‿ˈaʊt/US/ˌpitɚ‿ˈaʊt/
peter out verb: synonym of peter (“to diminish to nothing, (originally) to refer to a vein of ore”).
Verb
peter out (third-person singular simple present peters out, present participle petering out, simple past and past participle petered out)
- Synonym of peter (“to diminish to nothing, (originally) to refer to a vein of ore”).
- What started as a great effort ended up petering out to nothing.
- Q. Do you think, Doctor, that it is possible for that south strand to likewise peter out and disappear?1832, Records and Briefs of the United States Supreme Court, page 808, lines 16–17
peter out meaning in Tamil and Arabic
peter out in Tamil
- தேய்ந்தழிவு
peter out in Arabic
- to diminish to nothing — see also dwindle
- غَارَ ḡāra
Examples of peter out in a sentence
- Let them burn down the town, kill each other off, and it will peter out after a while.1967, Riots, Civil and Criminal Disorders, page 3097, lines 31–32:
- I shall therefore suggest that the ongoing speaker deliberately allows her/his turn to peter out in the hope that someone else will take up the initiative.1991, Richard J. Watts, Power in Family Discourse, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 129:
Synonyms of peter out
Forms of peter out
| third-person singular present | peters out |
|---|---|
| present participle | petering out |
| past participle | petered out |
| past | petered out |
Origin of peter out
From peter (“diminish to nothing”, intransitive verb) + out. First attested in the mid-1800s.
Words that rhyme with peter out
42 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- set about
- shout
- sprout
- doubt
- umlaut
- fill out
- grout
- pout
- devout
- drought
- gout
- nowt
- redoubt
- throughout
- without
- ablaut
- dout
- flout
- lout
- mahout
- misdoubt
- mought
- prone out
- strout
- term out
- trout
- zoom out
- 'bout
- anlaut
- aspout
- asprout
- bluff out
- chout
- dought
- knout
- kraut
- layabout
- ne'er cast a clout till May be out
- owt
- regrout
- sout
- when in doubt, do nowt
Questions about peter out
- What does peter out mean?
- Peter out means synonym of peter (“to diminish to nothing, (originally) to refer to a vein of ore”).
- What is peter out in Tamil?
- Peter out in Tamil is தேய்ந்தழிவு. See Peter out meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use peter out in a sentence?
- Let them burn down the town, kill each other off, and it will peter out after a while.
- What part of speech is peter out?
- Peter out is a verb.
- How do you pronounce peter out?
- Peter out is pronounced /ˌpiːtəɹ‿ˈaʊt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of peter out?
- The past tense of peter out is petered out.
Words near peter out in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: peter out (page history and authors); peter out (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-peter out.ogg.
Cite this entry: “peter out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/peter_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.