peeper
nounUK /ˈpiːpə/ · US /ˈpipɚ/
Etymology From peep + -er.
1
Colloquial, In plural The eye.
- Check out the gorgeous peepers on that guy!
- 1938, Louis Armstrong (and lyrics by Johnny Mercer), Jeepers Creepers Jeepers creepers, where'd ya get them peepers? Jeepers creepers, where'd ya get those eyes?
1 more example
- The witness stand. Goldminers giving evidence, sure he's violent didn't I see him with my own peepers chasing those poor kids up on the roof.1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 36:
2
Someone who peeps; a spy.
- Who's there? peepers, intelligencers, eavesdroppers?1604 (first performance), Tho[mas] Dekker; Iohn Webster [i.e., John Webster], West-ward Hoe. […], London: […] [William Jaggard], and to be sold by Iohn Hodgets […], published 1607, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
- If listeners seldom hear good of themselves, it is also true that peepers sometimes see more than they like; and Betty, the cook, as she reached the landing, glancing askance with ominous curiosity, beheld a spectacle, the sight of which nearly bereft her of her senses.1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
3
Dated, Derogatory, Slang A private detective.
- So you go to see this peeper, this Marlowe. That was your mistake.1944, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, The Big Sleep (screenplay)
4
A peeping tom.
5
An animal, such as some frogs, having a shrill, high-pitched call.
6
Colloquial A chicken just breaking the shell; a young bird.
- Derived terms
- leaf peeper, pixel-peeper, pixel peeper, spring peeper