Peek
name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A quick glance or look. informal
- 2 Misspelling of pique. alt-of, informal, misspelling
- 3 Acronym of polyetheretherketone. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
- 4 a secret look wordnet
- 1 To look slyly, or with the eyes half closed, or through a crevice; to peep. informal, intransitive
"Close your eyes, and no peeking!"
- 2 throw a glance at; take a brief look at wordnet
- 3 To be only slightly, partially visible, as if peering out from a hiding place. informal, intransitive
"A pale strip of white skin peeked out from under his waistband."
- 4 To briefly move out of cover (to gather visual information). informal, intransitive
"Sniper watching the site; don't peek."
- 5 To take a look at; to check out. informal, transitive
"Peek my new shoes."
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- 6 To retrieve (a value) from a memory address. dated, informal, transitive
"We are peeking the value from the first index's memory location."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"I quietly take out my camera, so as not to be noticed by my photographic subject, and peek through the finder."
Etymology
From Middle English *peken, piken, pyken (“to peep”), probably a fusion of Middle English pepen (“to peep”) and keken, kiken (“to keek, look, spy”), equivalent to a blend of peep + keek. Perhaps also possibly a metathetic alteration of Middle English kepen, kipen, kypen (“to keep, look, observe, watch”).
Related phrases
More for "peek"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.