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Synonyms

peter out

Idioms  

  1. Dwindle or diminish and come to an end, as in Their enthusiasm soon petered out. The origin of this usage is unknown, but one authority suggests it may refer to the apostle Peter, whose enthusiastic support of Jesus quickly diminished so that he denied knowing him three times during the night after Jesus's arrest. [Mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

A counterfrontier runs from the lower right to the upper left, beyond which the Danish place names left by the Vikings peter out.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026

It remains to be seen when the rally will peter out.

From Barron's • Dec. 10, 2025

Navellier, for his part, told MarketWatch he was “not worried about valuations” and expected the selloff to peter out “sooner rather than later.”

From MarketWatch • Nov. 18, 2025

But scrambling pars, first from the ravine on the long par-three 16th, and then after a wild drive on 17, saw his round peter out.

From BBC • Jul. 19, 2025

On the shell house balcony, down the course, Al Ulbrickson’s hopes silently soared when he saw the boat move, but the move seemed to peter out with the boys still well short of the lead.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.