peak
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: pēk, IPA(key): /piːk/
- Rhymes: -iːk
- Homophones: peek, peke, pique
Audio (UK) (file)
Etymology 1
From earlier peake, peek, peke, from Middle English *peke, *pek (attested in peked, variant of piked), itself an alteration of pike, pyke, pyk (“a sharp point, pike”), from Old English pīc, piic (“a pike, needle, pin, peak, pinnacle”), from Proto-Germanic *pīkaz (“peak”). Cognate with Dutch piek (“pike, point, summit, peak”), Danish pik (“pike, peak”), Swedish pik (“pike, lance, point, peak”), Norwegian pik (“peak, summit”). More at pike.
Noun
peak (plural peaks)
- A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.
- 2002, Joy of Cooking: All About Cookies, →ISBN, page 29:
- A less risky method is to lift your whisk or beater to check the condition of the peaks of the egg whites; the foam should be just stiff enough to stand up in well-defined, unwavering peaks.
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- The highest value reached by some quantity in a time period.
- Synonyms: apex, pinnacle; see also Thesaurus:apex
- The stock market reached a peak in September 1929.
- 2012 October 23, David Leonhardt, "," New York Times (retrieved 24 October 2012):
- By last year, family income was 8 percent lower than it had been 11 years earlier, at its peak in 2000, according to inflation-adjusted numbers from the Census Bureau.
- (geography) The top, or one of the tops, of a hill, mountain, or range, ending in a point.
- Synonyms: summit, top
- They reached the peak after 8 hours of climbing.
- (geography) The whole hill or mountain, especially when isolated.
- 1898, Arnold Henry Savage Landor, In the Forbidden Land Chapter 62
- To the South we observed a large plain some ten miles wide, with snowy peaks rising on the farther side. In front was a hill projecting into the plain, on which stood a mani wall; and this latter discovery made me feel quite confident that I was on the high road to Lhassa.
- 1898, Arnold Henry Savage Landor, In the Forbidden Land Chapter 62
- (nautical) The upper aftermost corner of a fore-and-aft sail.
- peak-halyards
- peak-brails
- (nautical) The narrow part of a vessel's bow, or the hold within it.
- (nautical) The extremity of an anchor fluke; the bill.
- (mathematics) A local maximum of a function, e.g. for sine waves, each point at which the value of y is at its maximum.
Derived terms
- crosspeak
- forepeak
- High Peak
- off-peak
- Peak Dale
- Peak District
- Peak Forest
- peakless
- peaklike
- peakwise
- Pikes Peak
Descendants
- → Polish: pik
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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Verb
peak (third-person singular simple present peaks, present participle peaking, simple past and past participle peaked)
- (transitive, nautical) To raise the point of (a gaff) closer to perpendicular.
- (intransitive)
- To reach a highest degree or maximum.
- Historians argue about when the Roman Empire began to peak and ultimately decay.
- To rise or extend into a peak or point; to form, or appear as, a peak.
- 1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “(please specify the book number)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], OCLC 12997447:
- There peaketh up a mightie high mounte.
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- To reach a highest degree or maximum.
- (gender-critical) To cause to adopt gender-critical or trans-exclusionary views (ellipsis of peak trans).
- 2019 August 4, Alison Weir (@WeirAlison), Twitter:
- I came to this via sport but the thing that really peaked me was this.
- 2019 August 31, MrsMiggins (@MrsMiggins13), Twitter:
- My friend peaked me last year, at the GRA [Gender Recognition Act] consultation.
- 2021 November 22, DefendingMySisters (@DefendingMy), Twitter:
- Solidarity from Spain, @jk_rowling. Thank you for peaking so many people all over the world.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:peak.
Synonyms
- culminate
Translations
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Adjective
peak (comparative more peak, superlative most peak)
- At the greatest extent; maximum.
- peak oil, Peak TV
- (slang) Maximal, quintessential, archetypical; representing the culmination of its type.
- Knowing obscure 19th-century slang is peak nerd.
- (MLE) Bad
- 2015, “Its Peak”, performed by Tinie Tempah (featuring Stormzy and Bugzy Malone):
- When they're tryna get the girl to the crib and she leaves, it's peak / Tryna keep it discreet and she tweets, it's peak / See me rolling with 20 man deep, it's peak / Yo rudeboy, pull up, repeat, it's peak
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- (MLE) Unlucky; unfortunate
Synonyms
- (bad): See Thesaurus:bad
- (unlucky): See also Thesaurus:unlucky
Etymology 2
Unknown.
Verb
peak (third-person singular simple present peaks, present participle peaking, simple past and past participle peaked)
- (intransitive) To become sick or wan.
- (intransitive) To acquire sharpness of figure or features; hence, to look thin or sickly.
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii]:
- Dwindle, peak, and pine.
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- (intransitive) To pry; to peep slyly.
Related terms
- peaky
Noun
peak (uncountable)
- Alternative form of peag (“wampum”).
Verb
peak (third-person singular simple present peaks, present participle peaking, simple past and past participle peaked)
- Misspelling of pique.
Anagrams
- Paek, kaep, kape
Basque
Noun
peak
- absolutive plural of pe
- ergative singular of pe