PEAK • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Peak

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noun

Peak n.

1.

A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap. "Run your beard into a peak."

2.

The top, or one of the tops, of a hill, mountain, or range, ending in a point; often, the whole hill or mountain, esp. when isolated; as, the Peak of Teneriffe. "Silent upon a peak in Darien."

3.

(Naut.)

(a)

The upper aftermost corner of a fore-and-aft sail; used in many combinations; as, peak-halyards, peak-brails, etc.

(b)

The narrow part of a vessel's bow, or the hold within it.

(c)

The extremity of an anchor fluke; the bill. (In the last sense written also pea and pee)

Fore peak. (Naut.) See under Fore.

verb

Peak v. t. (Naut.) To raise to a position perpendicular, or more nearly so; as, to peak oars, to hold them upright; to peak a gaff or yard, to set it nearer the perpendicular.

Peak v. i. (past & past part. peaked; pres. part. peaking)

1.

To rise or extend into a peak or point; to form, or appear as, a peak. "There peaketh up a mighty high mount."

2.

Hence: To achieve a maximum of numerical value, intensity of activity, popularity, or other characteristic, followed by a decline; as, the stock market peaked in January; his performance as a pitcher peaked in 1990; sales of the XTX model peaked at 20,000 per year.

3.

To acquire sharpness of figure or features; hence, to look thin or sickly. "Dwindle, peak, and pine."

4.

To pry; to peep slyly. (archaic)

Peak arch (Arch.), a pointed or Gothic arch.

See images of 'Peak'

Etymology of 'Peak'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Peak" Quotes from Famous Books

... the centre of a vast semicircular valley, surrounded on all sides but one by a chain of mountains, over which one especial peak towered far above the rest, lifting up a crest that was crowned with eternal snow and formed ...

— Picked up at Sea - The Gold Miners of Minturne Creek • J.C. Hutcheson

... small in proportion to their great girth, and the whole tree looked very odd. These trees were all so alike in general form that I was convinced this was their character, and not a LUSUS NATUROE. [A still more remarkable specimen of this tree was found by Mr. Kennedy in the apex of a basaltic peak, in the kind of gap of the range through which we passed on the 15th of May, and of which he made ...

— Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia • Thomas Mitchell

... the tearer of the scented elephant of nocturnal darkness, the jewel arranged at the top of the pearl necklace the canopy of the stars; I went to my own dwelling. And three days being gone, when the lord of day had a splendour of colour common to it with the red chalk side of the peak of the western mountain, and was looking like the orb of one bosom of the Goddess of Twilight, united with the body of Siva, under the name of atmosphere, for the disparagement of the daughter of the king of mountains; that king also having ...

— Hindoo Tales - Or, The Adventures of Ten Princes • Translated by P. W. Jacob

... the hands were turned up, the capstern manned, the frigate unmoored, and hove "short stay a-peak" on her anchor remaining down. The gig was sent on shore with two midshipmen, one to watch the men and prevent their desertion, while the other went up to the captain's lodgings to report her arrival: the topsails were loosed, ...

— Newton Forster - The Merchant Service • Captain Frederick Marryat

... torch aimed directly into the little window that revealed all her inmost processes. The Peckerwood Pan hovered just at my shoulder, and together we beheld what was to me the most wonderful phenomenon of nature that had ever come my way. No sunset from Pike's Peak or high note from the throat of Caruso could equal it in my estimation. Behold, the first baby Bird stepped forth into the world right before my astonished and enraptured eyes! It was ...

— The Golden Bird • Maria Thompson Daviess

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