or peerie, adj. (old: now recognised).—Suspicious; knowing; sly; sharp-looking: also as verb. = to look about suspiciously.—HEAD (1665); B. E. (c. 1696); GROSE (1785).

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  1703.  WARD, The London Spy, xi. 259. Another in a Soldiers Habit, and look’d as PEERY as if he thought every fresh Man that came in, a Constable.

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  1721.  CIBBER, The Refusal, iii. Are you PEERY, as the Cant is?

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  1751.  FIELDING, Amelia, II. ix. You are so shy and PEERY, you would almost make one suspect there was more in the matter.

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  1819.  T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, 20.

        And, fixing his eye on the Porpus’s snout,
Which he knew that Adonis felt PEERY about.

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