peter out

From peter (“diminish to nothing”, intransitive verb) +‎ out. First attested in the mid-1800s.

• enPR: pē′tər out′
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌpiːtəɹ‿ˈaʊt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌpitɚ‿ˈaʊt/, [-ɾɚ-]

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊt
• Hyphenation: pe‧ter out

peter out (third-person singular simple present peters out, present participle petering out, simple past and past participle petered out)

1. (intransitive, originally US) Synonym of peter (“to diminish to nothing, (originally) to refer to a vein of ore”).

   Synonyms: dwindle, fade away, fade out, gutter out, spin down, tail away, trail off

   What started as a great effort ended up petering out to nothing.

   • 1832, Records and Briefs of the United States Supreme Court‎^[1], page 808, lines 16–17:

     Q. Do you think, Doctor, that it is possible for that south strand to likewise peter out and disappear?

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, “With the Children of Israel. I. To Introduce Mr. Kelmar.”, in The Silverado Squatters, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, page 60:

     But the luck had failed, the mines petered out; and the army of miners had departed, and left this quarter of the world to the rattlesnakes and deer and grizzlies, and to the slower but steadier advance of husbandry.

   • 1967, Riots, Civil and Criminal Disorders‎^[2], page 3097, lines 31–32:

     Seal the area off. Let them burn down the town, kill each other off, and it will peter out after a while.

   • 1991, Richard J. Watts, Power in Family Discourse‎^[3], Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 129:

     I shall therefore suggest that the ongoing speaker deliberately allows her/his turn to peter out in the hope that someone else will take up the initiative.

   • 2002, John Naylor, Out of the Blue: A 24-Hour Skywatcher's Guide‎^[4], Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 5:

     The remaining 25% of air that lies more than 10km above ground becomes ever more tenuous until it finally peters out some 150km above our heads.

   • 2020 November 18, Paul Bigland, “New Infrastructure and New Rolling Stock”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 49:

     Soon, the overhead wires will reach here. My only hope is that common sense prevails, and that the overhead line equipment continues its march north rather than petering out, leaving a monument to short-term thinking and a lack of vision.

• Christine Ammer (2013), “peter out”, in American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 346, column 2.
• Gary Martin (1997–), “Peter out”, in The Phrase Finder.