PEAK • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... hill, and, weary as he was, he soon ascended it. As he lifted his foot to take the last step he closed his eyes, as the yay had bidden him. When he felt his foot again on the earth he opened his eyes, and lo! instead of having a little hill under his feet, he stood on the summit of a great mountain peak, seamed with deep cañons, bordered with rugged rocks, and clothed with great forests of pine and spruce; while far away on the plain at the foot of the mountain—so far that he could scarcely discern them—were his baffled pursuers, and beside him ...

— The Mountain Chant, A Navajo Ceremony • Washington Matthews

... conviction that he would himself be the favored one. As if to allay their too sanguine hopes, they recurred to the Indian traditions that a spirit kept watch about the gem, and bewildered those who sought it either by removing it from peak to peak of the higher hills, or by calling up a mist from the enchanted lake over which it hung. But these tales were deemed unworthy of credit, all professing to believe that the search had been ...

— The Great Stone Face - And Other Tales Of The White Mountains • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... asked, for I felt that I should like to climb to the topmost pinnacle of the highest peak in all the world and shout the good news to the four ...

— The Mystery of the Green Ray • William Le Queux

... picture of the Turco. He had served in Algiers, and after the war in Italy brought a bullet in his leg to New Orleans. He was long past fifty—spare, broad-shouldered and hard as a log of oak. His sharp features were bronzed to the richest mahogany color, and garnished with a moustache and peak of grizzled hair "a cubit and a span"—or nearly—in length. And the short, grizzled hair had been shaved far back from his prominent temples, giving a sinister and grotesque effect to his naturally hard face. ...

— Four Years in Rebel Capitals - An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death • T. C. DeLeon

... for example, does the San Bernardino Range of southern California, one can stand among stunted plants of an arctic climate and look down upon orange orchards where frost rarely forms. Mount Tamalpais, a peak of the Coast Range north of San Francisco, has an elevation of nearly three thousand feet. The summer temperature upon this mountain forms an exception to the general rule, for while the lowlands are buried in chilling fog, the air upon the summit is ...

— The Western United States - A Geographical Reader • Harold Wellman Fairbanks

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