Search the Dictionary

Most ancient; -- said of the peer bearing the oldest title of his degree.

d States. The name is sometimes extended to other species of the same genus. -- Primrose peerless, the two-flowered Narcissus (N. biflorus). [Obs.]

The person who is substituted or deputed to act or vote for another. Every peer . . . may make another lord of parliament his proxy, to vote for him in his absence. Blackstone.

To peer at; to eye suspiciously or mockingly.

erplexity, need, or the like; access or application for aid; resort. Thus died this great peer, in a time of great recourse unto him and dependence upon him. Sir H. Wotton. Our last recourse is therefore to our art. Dryden.

agrant: opprobrium or disgrace. O, what a scandal is it to our crown, That two such noble peers as ye should jar! Shak. [I] have brought scandal To Israel, diffidence of God, and doubt In feeble hearts. Milton.

called also middle ground, or middle distance. [R.] -- Second estate (Eng.), the House of Peers. -- Second girl, a female house-servant who does the lighter work, as chamber work or waiting on table. -- Second intention. See under Intention. -- Second story, Story floor, in America, the second range of rooms from th…

te of slavish dependence. You would have sold your king to slaughter, His princes and his peers to servitude. Shak. A splendid servitude; . . . for he that rises up early, and goeSouth.

To search; to pry; to ask; to inquire. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.] [Written also speer, speir.] Jamieson.

afterward, an officer occasionally appointed, as for a coronation, or upon the trial of a peer. [Eng.]

wreck. The Whig majority of the house of Lords was swamped by the creation of twelve Tory peers. J. R. Green. Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory. Sir W. Hamilton.

ther; a tenant, or lessee. Sir W. Scott. The tacksmen, who formed what may be called the "peerage" of the little community, must be the captains. Macaulay.

lands, houses, rents, commons, an office, an advowson, a franchise, a right of common, a peerage, and the like; -- called also free or frank tenements. The thing held is a tenement, the possessor of it a "tenant," and the manner of possession is called "tenure." Blackstone.

talents, acquirements, age, station, or the like; as, the fingers are of unequal length; peers and commoners are unequal in rank.

Having no paragon or equal; matchless; peerless. [R.] Your unparagoned mistress is dead. Shak.

Having no rival; without a competitor; peerless. [Spelt also unrivalled.] Pope.

used to hardships and danger. I am so used in the fire to blow. Chaucer. Thou with thy compeers, Used to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels. Milton. To use one's self, to behave. [Obs.] "Pray, forgive me, if I have used myself unmannerly." Shak. -- To use up. (a) To consume or exhaust by using; to leave nothing o…

in order below an earl and next above a baron; also, his degree or title of nobility. See Peer, n., 3. [Eng.] Chaucer.