PEAK • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Peak

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/pik/ Listen

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

... woman shaped like a pyramid. Even her head, on which the black coarse hair was bobbed high, finished in a peak—the unmistakable mark of the ancient Aztec blood in her veins. Her shoulders sloped away from her three chins and it seemed as though the greatest circumference of her body must be at her ankles, for her skirt flared. ...

— The Mission of Janice Day • Helen Beecher Long

... of the prime virtues of a steel sailing-ship. Such a craft, heavily laden, does not strain her seams open in bad weather and big seas. Except for a tiny leak down in the fore-peak, with which we sailed from Baltimore and which is bailed out with a pail once in several weeks, the Elsinore is bone-dry. Mr. Pike tells me that had a wooden ship of her size and cargo gone through the buffeting we have ...

— The Mutiny of the Elsinore • Jack London

... fame grow brighter as the years recede, and as we get away from the frailties and foibles which attach to the weakness of our common humanity, even in the person of the strongest. As we get away it is like moving from some grand mountain peak. As you go away you see its symmetrical form rise clear in the clouds, with the eternal blue around the summit, with all its harsh and rugged outlines obliterated by distance; it is there in its perfect grandeur, in its completeness and beauty, without any of the weaknesses or foibles ...

— Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O • Various

... a small fortified house in the pass over the hills from Burnley to Todmorden. It stood within a short distance from the Eagle Crag; and the Lady Sibyl would often climb to the utmost verge of that overhanging peak, looking from its dizzy height until her soul expanded, and her thoughts took their flight through those dim regions where the ...

— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red, with the Slovenian seal (a shield with the image of Triglav, Slovenia's highest peak, in white against a blue background at the center; beneath it are two wavy blue lines depicting seas and rivers, and above it are three six-pointed stars arranged in an inverted triangle, which are taken from the coat of arms of the Counts ...

— The 2004 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

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