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Pry vs Peer - What's the difference?

pry | peer |

As verbs the difference between pry and peer

is that pry is to look where one is not welcome; to be nosey while peer is to look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.

As nouns the difference between pry and peer

is that pry is the act of prying while peer is somebody who is, or something that is, at a level equal (to that of something else).

pry

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) pryen, . More at (l).

Verb

(en-verb)
  • To look where one is not welcome; to be nosey.
  • To look closely and curiously at.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Watch thou and wake when others be asleep, / To pry into the secrets of the state.

    Noun

  • The act of prying
  • An excessively inquisitive person
  • Etymology 2

    1800, ("lever"), construed as a plural noun or as a 3rd person singular verb.

    Noun

    (pries)
  • A lever.
  • Leverage.
  • Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To use leverage to open or widen. (See also prise and prize.)
  • peer

    English

    (wikipedia peer)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something.
  • * Shakespeare
  • peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads
  • * Coleridge
  • as if through a dungeon grate he peered
  • * 1900 , , The House Behind the Cedars , Chapter I,
  • He walked slowly past the gate and peered through a narrow gap in the cedar hedge. The girl was moving along a sanded walk, toward a gray, unpainted house, with a steep roof, broken by dormer windows.
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 6
  • He would peek into the curtained windows, or, climbing upon the roof, peer down the black depths of the chimney in vain endeavor to solve the unknown wonders that lay within those strong walls.
  • to come in sight; to appear.
  • * Shakespeare
  • So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
  • * Ben Jonson
  • See how his gorget peers above his gown!

    Etymology 2

    From Anglo-Norman peir , (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level equal (to that of something else).
  • * Dryden
  • In song he never had his peer .
  • * Isaac Taylor
  • Shall they draw off to their privileged quarters, and consort only with their peers ?
  • # Someone who is approximately the same age (as someone else).
  • A noble with a hereditary title, i.e., a peerage, and in times past, with certain rights and privileges not enjoyed by commoners.
  • a peer of the realm
  • * Milton
  • a noble peer of mickle trust and power
  • A comrade; a companion; an associate.
  • * Spenser
  • He all his peers in beauty did surpass.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to make equal in rank.
  • (Heylin)
  • (Internet) To carry communications traffic terminating on one's own network on an equivalency basis to and from another network, usually without charge or payment. Contrast with transit where one pays another network provider to carry one's traffic.
  • Derived terms
    * peer-to-peer

    Etymology 3

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Someone who pees, someone who urinates.
  • * '>citation
  • * '>citation
  • * '>citation
  • Anagrams

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