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Peeping Tom
noun
- a person who obtains sexual gratification by observing others surreptitiously, especially a man who looks through windows at night.
Peeping Tom
noun
- a man who furtively observes women undressing; voyeur
peeping Tom
- One who derives pleasure, usually sexual, from secretly spying on others. ( See voyeurism .)
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Notes
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Word History and Origins
Origin of Peeping Tom1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of Peeping Tom1
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Idioms and Phrases
A person who secretly watches others, especially for sexual gratification; a voyeur. For example, The police caught a peeping Tom right outside their house . This expression, first recorded in 1796, alludes to the legend of the tailor Tom, the only person to watch the naked Lady Godiva as she rode by and who was struck blind for this sin.Discover More
Example Sentences
He had been playing "Peeping Tom" and the ball had caught him squarely upon his woolly crown.
Napier himself was too aware of a Peeping-Tom unseemliness in looking in upon these privacies to stand there watching.
It remained for "Peeping-Tom" to think of a gas-mask in connection with this scheme.
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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.
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