Standard Lemma guide

bo-peep

noun · verb · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

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.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • 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.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Any whistling frog.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable

Qualifier: British Virgin Islands

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

Sleep.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Cockney, slang, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

verb

Meaning 4

To play the game of bo-peep; to peek out suddenly.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.