peak
Forms
- Plural
- peaks
- present (v1)
- peak
- past (v2)
- peaked
- past participle (v3)
- peaked
- present participle
- peaking
- 3rd person singular
- peaks
Definitions
1.The highest value reached by some quantity in a time period.
- The stock market reached a peak in September 1929.
- By last year, family income was 8 percent lower than it had been 11 years earlier, at its peak in 2000, according to inflation-adjusted numbers from the Census Bureau.
2.The top, or one of the tops, of a hill, mountain, or range, ending in a point.
- They reached the peak after 8 hours of climbing.
3.The whole hill or mountain, especially when isolated.
4.A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.
- A less risky method is to lift your whisk or beater to check the condition of the peaks of the egg whites; the foam should be just stiff enough to stand up in well-defined, unwavering peaks.
1.To raise the point of (a gaff) closer to perpendicular.
2.To exceed the maximum signal amplitude of (a piece of equipment), resulting in clipping of the signal.
3.To reach a highest degree or maximum.
- Historians argue about when the Roman Empire began to peak and ultimately decay.
4.To rise or extend into a peak or point; to form, or appear as, a peak.
- There peaketh up a mightie high mounte.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2625
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From earlier peake, peek, peke, from Middle English pek (in place names), itself an alteration of pike, pyke, pyk (“a sharp point, pike”), from Old English pīc, piic (“a pike, needle, pin, peak, pinnacle”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīk, from Proto-Germanic *pīkaz (“peak”).