bo-peep

English

Alternative forms

bo peep, bopeep

Noun

bo-peep (countable and uncountable, plural bo-peeps)

The act of looking out suddenly, as from behind a screen, so as to startle someone (as by children in play), or of looking out and drawing suddenly back, as if frightened.
- 1606, The Tragedy of King Lear by Shakespeare, scene IV
  That such a king should play bo-peep, / And go the fools among.
- 1881, Geneva Gazette - Jul 8, 1881, page 2, "Official Paper Of The Village"
  They have not employed spies, nor been voluntary or involuntary witnesses of misdeeds or played "bopeep" through key-holes or from step-ladders through transom windows, upon the privacy of their political adversaries.
(countable, British Virgin Islands) Any whistling frog.

Synonyms

(children's game): peek-a-boo, peep bo

Derived terms

play at bo peep
play bo peep
bo peepers / bo-peepers

Translations

act of sudden looking-out

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for bo-peep in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

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