peter

Definition von peter im Englisch Englisch wörterbuch: The leading Apostle in the New Testament
And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church;.; The epistles of Peter in the New Testament of the Bible, 1 Peter and 2 Peter attributed to St. Peter; A male given name
What splendid names for boys there are! / There's Carol like a rolling car, / And Martin like a flying bird, / And Adam like the Lord's First Word, / And Raymond like the Harvest Moon, / And Peter like a piper's tune,.; To dwindle; to trail off; to diminish to nothing; The penis; to fail or lose power, efficiency, or value; given name, male; Peter's regency was directed by Aleksandr Menshikov. He fell under the influence of the aristocratic Dolgoruky family, which ousted Menshikov as regent, moved the capital to Moscow (1728), and arranged Peter's betrothal to one of its princesses. On the day set for the wedding, Peter died of smallpox at age; born Sept. 6, 1923, Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes died Nov. 3, 1970, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S. Last king of Yugoslavia. The son of Alexander I, he became titular king on his father's assassination (1934), but he ruled under the regency of his uncle Prince Paul (1893-1976). After a coup deposed Paul (1941), Peter ruled for several weeks until the German invasion forced him to flee to London. He led a government-in-exile until the Yugoslav monarchy was abolished in 1945. He moved to the U.S., where he worked in public relations. Spanish Pedro known as Peter the Cruel born Sept. 5, 1319, or Sept. 15, 1317, Balaguer, Catalonia died Jan. 5, 1387, Barcelona King of Aragon (1336-87). He took the Balearic Islands and Roussillon from Majorca (1343-44), defeated the Aragonese nobles (1348), and became duke of Athens and Neopatras (1380). He waged war against Castile (1356-66) but failed to gain any territory; after 1369 France favoured Castile over Aragon. Peter tried to maintain neutrality in the Hundred Years' War, and he quarreled with his heir, the future John I, who became the tool of French intrigues. born 903 died Jan. 30, 969 Tsar of Bulgaria (927-969). The second son of Simeon I, he inherited the throne on his father's death in 927. Early in his reign, Peter faced revolts by his brothers, which were suppressed, and he also endured raids by the Magyars, who crossed Bulgaria on their way to the Byzantine Empire. His reign, however, was generally peaceful, and he made important gains against the Byzantines, receiving the title emperor from them. He also forced the Byzantines to recognize the independence of the Bulgarian church, and he married the granddaughter of the Byzantine emperor Romanus I Lecapenus. In 965 war broke out with the Byzantines; Peter subsequently suffered a stroke and retired to a monastery, where he died two years later. Canonized by the Bulgarian Orthodox church, Peter was deeply religious and an active church builder. During his reign, the Bogomil heresy first appeared. Russian Pyotr Alekseyevich known as Peter the Great born June 9, 1672, Moscow, Russia died Feb. 8, 1725, St. Petersburg Tsar of Russia (1682-1725). Son of Tsar Alexis, he reigned jointly with his half brother Ivan V (1682-96) and alone from 1696. Interested in progressive influences from western Europe, he visited several countries there (1697-98). After returning to Russia, he introduced Western technology, modernized the government and military system, and transferred the capital to the new city of St. Petersburg (1703). He further increased the power of the monarchy at the expense of the nobles and the Orthodox church. Some of his reforms were implemented brutally, with considerable loss of life. Suspecting that his son Alexis was conspiring against him, he had Alexis tortured to death in 1718. He pursued foreign policies to give Russia access to the Baltic and Black seas, engaging in war with the Ottoman Empire (1695-96) and with Sweden in the Second Northern War (1700-21). His campaign against Persia (1722-23) secured for Russia the southern and western shores of the Caspian Sea. In 1721 he was proclaimed emperor; his wife succeeded him as the empress Catherine I. For raising Russia to a recognized place among the great European powers, Peter is widely considered one of the outstanding rulers and reformers in Russian history, but he has also been decried by nationalists for discarding much of what was unique in Russian culture, and his legacy has been seen as a model for Joseph Stalin's brutal transformation of Russian life. born July 11, 1844, Belgrade, Serbia died Aug. 16, 1921, Topider, near Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes King of Serbia (1903-18) and of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) from 1918. The son of Prince Alexander Karadjordjevi, who was forced to abdicate in 1858, he lived with his family in exile. He fought with the French army in the Franco-Prussian War and with the Serbian revolt against the Turks (1875). After the assassination of Alexander Obrenovi (1903), Peter was elected king of Serbia. He advocated a constitutional government and won recognition for his liberal policies. In World War I, he allied Serbia with France and Russia but was defeated by the Central Powers. In 1918 he returned to Belgrade and was proclaimed king of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Abelard Peter Altgeld John Peter Behrens Peter Lawrence Peter Berra Brook Sir Peter Stephen Paul Carey Peter Philip Cooper Peter Davies Sir Peter Maxwell Debye Peter Doherty Peter Charles Dunne Finley Peter Emerson Peter Henry Fabergé Peter Carl Giannini Amadeo Peter Goldmark Peter Carl Hall Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Handke Peter Kropotkin Peter Alekseyevich Lorre Peter Martins Peter Matthiessen Peter Medawar Sir Peter Brian Minuit Peter Mitchell Peter Dennis Müller Johannes Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus Peter Damian Saint Peter III Peter the Great Peter II Peter IV Peter the Cruel Peter I Peter Lombard Peter the Apostle Saint Peter the Great Bay Peter the Hermit Peter the Venerable Peter's Pence Roget Peter Mark Rose Peter Edward Rubens Peter Paul Saint Peter's Basilica Schubert Franz Peter Scott Sir Peter Markham Seeger Peter Sellars Peter Sellers Peter Shaffer Peter Levin Stuyvesant Peter Taylor Peter Hillsman Ustinov Sir Peter Alexander John Peter Wagner Waldo Peter Weiss Peter Ulrich Peter John Weissmuller Zenger John Peter Northcliffe of Saint Peter Alfred Charles William Harmsworth Viscount Karl Peter Ulrich duke von Holstein Gottorp; {i} Saint Peter (died c. AD 67), one of the 12 Apostles; male first name; disapproval If you say that someone is robbing Peter to pay Paul, you mean that they are transferring money from one group of people or place to another, rather than providing extra money. Sometimes he was moving money from one account to another, robbing Peter to pay Paul. + peter out peter out If something peters out, it gradually comes to an end. The six-month strike seemed to be petering out. The chief of the 12 Apostles. He is traditionally regarded as the first bishop of Rome. rob Peter to pay Paul rob. peter out to gradually become smaller, less, weaker etc and then come to an end. Spanish Pedro known as Peter the Great born 1239 died Nov. 11, 1285, Villafrance del Panades, Catalonia King of Aragon (1276-85) and of Sicily (as Pedro I, 1282-85). He married the Hohenstaufen heiress of Sicily (1262) and ended the Sicilian revolt (1282), becoming king despite Guelph and papal opposition (see Sicilian Vespers). Unhappy with his Sicilian venture, nobles and municipalities in Aragon forced Peter to confirm their legal rights and to diminish crown rights. In 1285 he defeated Philip III of France, who had invaded Aragon in an effort to dethrone him. Russian Pyotr Fyodorovich orig. Karl Peter Ulrich, duke von Holstein-Gottorp born Feb. 21, 1728, Kiel, Holstein-Gottorp died July 18, 1762, Ropsha, near St. Petersburg, Russia Tsar of Russia (1762). Grandson of Peter I, the young duke was brought to Russia by his aunt Elizabeth when she became empress (1741). Proclaimed the heir to the Russian throne, he was unpopular at court for his pro-Prussian attitude. After he succeeded Elizabeth (1762), he reversed her foreign policy, making peace with Prussia and withdrawing from the Seven Years' War. He offended the Orthodox church by trying to force it to adopt Lutheran practices. After six months he was forced to abdicate by a group of nobles, in collusion with his own wife, Catherine (later Catherine II), and Count Grigory Orlov, and was murdered while in the conspirators' custody. Russian Pyotr Alekseyevich born Oct. 23, 1715, St. Petersburg, Russia died Jan. 29, 1730, Moscow Tsar of Russia (1727-30). The grandson of Peter I, he was named heir to the throne by Catherine I and on her death was crowned at age; disciple of Jesus and leader of the apostles; regarded by Catholics as the vicar of Christ on earth and first Pope; obscene terms for penis; {f} diminish and come to a stop; give out, expire; fade, die out; (Saint) The apostle who denied Jesus and who Jesus called 'the rock on which the church was built'; Peter was the first bishop of Rome, or Pope; (See Blue Peter ) Great Peter A bell in York Minister, weighing 10 3/4 tons, and hung in 1845 Lord Peter The Pope in Swift's Tale ej'a Tub Rob Peter to pay Paul (See Robbing ) St Peter Patron saint of fishers and fishmongers, being himself a fisherman St Peter, in Christian art, is represented as an old man, bald, but with a flowing beard; he is usually dressed in a white mantle and blue tunic, and holds in his hand a book or scroll His peculiar symbols are the keys, and a sword, the instrument of his martyrdom He has got St Peter's fingers - i e the fingers of a thief The allusion is to the fish caught by St Peter with a piece of money in its mouth They say that a thief has a fish-hook on every finger; The name of one of the apostles, To become exhausted; to run out; to fail; used generally with out; as, that mine has petered out; Proclaimed King of Yugoslavia in 1941 at age 17; deposed November 1945; (See Blue Peter ) Great Peter A bell in York Minster, weighing 10 3/4 tons, and hung in 1845 Lord Peter The Pope in Swift's Tale of a Tub Rob Peter to pay Paul (See Robbing ) St Peter Patron saint of fishers and fishmongers, being himself a fisherman St Peter, in Christian art, is represented as an old man, bald, but with a flowing beard; he is usually dressed in a white mantle and blue tunic, and holds in his hand a book or scroll His peculiar symbols are the keys, and a sword, the instrument of his martyrdom He has got St Peter's fingers - i e the fingers of a thief The allusion is to the fish caught by St Peter with a piece of money in its mouth They say that a thief has a fish-hook on every finger; (B) echo; high-low signal; A common baptismal name for a man; 11r L 16 adj Small, little; insignificant, minor As a name: St Peter, one of the apostle in the Bible; fever
Peter Pan: A man who acts as a child and does not accept the responsibilities of adulthood
A Peter Pan if ever there was one. Hopeless at school. Incapable either of competing or co-operating..
Peter Pan syndrome: The supposed psychological phenomenon of immaturity among some men, who, like the fictional character, remain childish and fail to assume appropriate adult social roles and responsibilities
The husband himself (called he to emphasize his role as Typical Male) comes across as a rather dense, naughty adolescent boy. He is clearly suffering from a terminal case of the Peter Pan syndrome.
Peter Pans: plural form of Peter Pan
Peter principle: The theory that in an organization, people tend to rise (be promoted) to the level of their incompetence
peter out: To dwindle; to tail off; to diminish to nothing
What started as a great effort ended up petering out to nothing.
peter pan: A man who never seems to become older or grow up. The name comes from the main character in the play Peter Pan (1904) by J. M. Barrie. Peter Pan is a young boy who never grows up, but lives in a magic place called Never-Never Land and can fly
He is considered to be the Peter Pan of the music business.
Peter Abelard: a French philosopher and theologian best remembered for his love for Heloise, shown in their famous letters to each other (1079-1142). born 1079, Le Pallet, near Nantes, Brittany died April 21, 1142, Priory of Saint-Marcel, near Chalon-sur-Saône, Burgundy French theologian and philosopher. The son of a knight, he abandoned his inheritance to study philosophy. He became private tutor to Héloïse, niece of a canon in Paris, 1114. They fell in love; Héloïse became pregnant, and they married secretly. Her uncle had Abelard castrated, after which he became a monk and Héloïse became a nun. Abelard's Theologia was condemned as heretical in 1121. He accepted election as abbot of a monastery in Brittany in 1125, but his relations with the community deteriorated and he had to flee for his life. From 1135 Abelard taught at Mont-Sainte-Geneviève, where he wrote Ethica, in which he analyzed the notion of sin. In 1140 he was again condemned for heresy, and he withdrew to the monastery at Cluny. His influential Sic et non, a collection of apparently contradictory writings by church fathers on various topics, was intended to bring readers to the truth by wrestling with divergent opinions. He also wrote an autobiography, Historia calamitatum, and his best-known work is the series of letters he exchanged with Héloïse after they retired to monasteries
Peter Alekseyevich Kropotkin: born Dec. 21, 1842, Moscow, Russia died Feb. 8, 1921, Dmitrov, near Moscow Russian revolutionary and geographer, foremost theorist of anarchism. The son of a prince, he renounced his aristocratic heritage in 1871. Although he achieved renown in such fields as geography, zoology, sociology, and history, he shunned material success for the life of a revolutionist. He was imprisoned on political charges (1874-76) but escaped and fled to western Europe. He was imprisoned in France on trumped-up charges of sedition (1883-86), and in 1886 he settled in England, where he remained until the Russian Revolution of 1917 allowed him to return home. While in exile, he wrote several influential books, including Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1899) and Mutual Aid (1902), in which he attempted to put anarchism on a scientific basis and argued that cooperation rather than conflict is the chief factor in the evolution of species. On his return to Russia, he was bitterly disappointed that the Bolsheviks had made their revolution by authoritarian rather than libertarian methods, and he retired from politics
Peter Andreas Hansen: {i} (1795-1874) Danish astronomer
Peter Arno: {i} (1904-1968) U.S. cartoonist famous for his satirical works
Peter Behrens: born April 14, 1868, Hamburg died Feb. 27, 1940, Berlin, Ger. German architect and designer. He became director of Düsseldorf's arts and crafts school in 1903. The large electrical company AEG hired him in 1907 as its artistic adviser, a comprehensive job that led him to design the hexagonal trademark of the AEG, its catalogs, its office stationery, products such as electric fans and street lamps, and retail shops and factories. His AEG Works turbine factory in Berlin (1909-12), with its sweeping glass curtain wall, became the most significant building in Germany at that time. He was an influential pioneer of Modernism; Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe all worked in his office
Peter Brian Medawar: {i} (1915-1987) Brazilian-born English zoologist and anatomist, Nobel prize winner for medicine in 1960
Peter Carey: born May 7, 1943, Bacchus Marsh, Vic., Austl. Australian writer. He worked as an advertising copywriter and at other odd jobs until 1988, when he became a full-time writer. His short-story collection The Fat Man in History (1974) contains macabre elements. His novels, more realistic but laced with black humour, include Bliss (1981), Illywhacker (1985), Oscar and Lucinda (1988, Booker Prize), The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith (1994), Jack Maggs (1997), and True History of the Kelly Gang (2000; Booker Prize, 2001)
Peter Carl Goldmark: born , Dec. 2, 1906, Budapest, Hung. died Dec. 7, 1977, Westchester county, N.Y., U.S. Hungarian-U.S. engineer. He earned a doctorate from the University of Vienna before immigrating to the U.S. in 1933. From 1936 to 1972 he worked at the Columbia Broadcasting System Laboratories. In 1940 he demonstrated the first commercial colour-television system; based on a rotating three-colour disk, his system found wide application in closed-circuit television for industry, medical institutions, and schools because his camera was much smaller, lighter, and easier to maintain than those that eventually came to be used in commercial television. In 1948 he introduced the long-playing (LP) phonograph record, which revolutionized the recording industry. In 1950 he developed the scanning system that would allow the U.S. Lunar Orbiter spacecraft (launched in 1966) to relay photographs 238,000 mi (380,000 km) from the Moon to Earth
Peter Cetera: {i} (born 1944) American musician and singer who was the lead singer of the popular band Chicago from 1967-1985
Peter Charles Doherty: born Oct. 15, 1940, Australia Australian immunologist and pathologist. He earned a Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh. With Rolf M. Zinkernagel, he found that T cells from mice infected with a meningitis virus destroyed virus-infected cells only from the same strain of mice, and he showed that T cells must recognize two signals on an infected cell one from the virus and one from the cell's own antigens to destroy it. For the new understanding of general cellular immune mechanisms enabled by their research, the two men shared a 1996 Nobel Prize
Peter Cooper: born Feb. 12, 1791, New York, N.Y., U.S. died April 4, 1883, New York City U.S. inventor. Cooper became involved with the Canton Iron Works, built to supply the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., for which he devised and built the diminutive but powerful Tom Thumb locomotive. His factory at Trenton, N.J., produced the first structural-iron beams for buildings. He supported the Atlantic-cable project of Cyrus Field (1819-92) and became president of the North American Telegraph Co. His inventions include a washing machine, a compressed-air engine for ferry boats, and a waterpower device for moving canal barges. A social idealist and reformer, he founded the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1859
Peter Cornelius: {i} Carl August Peter Cornelius (1824-1874), German composer and poet
Peter Cushing: and for appearing as the character Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) (1913- 94) a British actor famous for acting in horror films, such as Dracula (1958)
Peter Debye: orig. Petrus Josephus Wilhelmus Debije born March 24, 1884, Maastricht, Neth. died Nov. 2, 1966, Ithaca, N.Y., U.S. Dutch-born U.S. physical chemist. His first important research, on electric dipole moments, advanced knowledge of the arrangement of atoms in molecules and of the distances between atoms. He showed that X-ray crystallography worked on powders, obviating the difficult first step of preparing good crystals. In 1923 he and Erich Hückel extended Svante Arrhenius's theory of the dissociation of salts in solution, proving that ionization is complete. He also investigated light scattering in gases. He won the Nobel Prize in 1936
Peter Dennis Mitchell: born , Sept. 29, 1920, Mitcham, Surrey, Eng. died April 10, 1992, Bodmin, Cornwall British chemist. He discovered how the distribution of enzymes in mitochondrial membranes helps them use energy from hydrogen ions to convert ADP to ATP. He received a 1978 Nobel Prize for formulating the chemiosmotic theory, which explains how energy is generated in the mitochondria of living cells
Peter Edward Rose: born April 14, 1941, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. U.S. baseball player. Rose began playing organized baseball at age eight. He played for the Cincinnati Reds (1963-78, 1984-86), the Philadelphia Phillies (1979-83), and the Montreal Expos (1984). His 4,256 career hits and 3,562 games played both remain all-time records, and his career mark for runs (2,165) is exceeded only by Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Hank Aaron. In 1989, after being investigated for allegedly betting on baseball games, including those of his own Reds, Rose was banned from the sport for life by the commissioner of baseball
Peter Fonda: {i} (born 1939) USA movie actor, son of Henry Fonda and brother of Jane Fonda
Peter Gordon MacKay: {i} (born 1965) Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of International Trade
Peter Handke: born Dec. 6, 1942, Griffen, Austria Austrian writer. He studied law before beginning to write seriously. He earned an early reputation as a member of the avant-garde with plays such as Offending the Audience (1966), in which actors analyze the nature of theatre and alternately insult the audience and praise its "performance," and Kaspar (1968). His novels, mostly ultraobjective, deadpan accounts of characters in extreme states of mind, include The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1970) and The Left-Handed Woman (1976). A dominant theme of his works is the deadening effects and underlying irrationality of ordinary language, everyday reality, and rational order
Peter Henderson: English professor of Computer Science who developed the "me too" functional language in 1984; (1822-1890) Scottish born United States expert in floriculture who wrote many books on horticulture
Peter Henry Emerson: born May 13, 1856, Cuba died May 12, 1936, Falmouth, Eng. English photographer. Trained as a physician, he began using photography in an anthropological study of East Anglia; the images were published in several books. A proponent of photography as a medium of artistic expression, he published a handbook, Naturalistic Photography (1889), in which he outlined his aesthetic system ("naturalism"), emphasizing that photographs should look like photographs rather than paintings. The book was so popular that he became known as one of the world's leading photographers, and his views influenced much of 20th-century photography
Peter Hillsman Taylor: born Jan. 8, 1917, Trenton, Tenn., U.S. died Nov. 2, 1994, Charlottesville, Va. U.S. short-story writer, novelist, and playwright. Taylor studied in the 1930s under several poets associated with the Southern literary renaissance. He taught at various schools, including the University of Virginia. He is best known for his short stories, which are usually set in contemporary Tennessee and which reveal conflicts between the old rural society and the industrialized "New South." The novella A Woman of Means (1950) is perhaps his finest work; his later works include The Old Forest and Other Stories (1985) and A Summons to Memphis (1986, Pulitzer Prize)
Peter I: Russian czar (1682-1725) who extended his territory around the Baltic and Caspian shores and reformed the administration of the state
Peter II: Yugoslavian king (1934-1945). After spending World War II in exile, he was forced to abdicate by the Communist government
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: a Russian composer who wrote symphonies and ballets, such as Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. Other well-known works are The 1812 Overture and his first piano concerto. His music is romantic, emotional, and often rather sad (1840-93)
Peter Kropotkin: born Dec. 21, 1842, Moscow, Russia died Feb. 8, 1921, Dmitrov, near Moscow Russian revolutionary and geographer, foremost theorist of anarchism. The son of a prince, he renounced his aristocratic heritage in 1871. Although he achieved renown in such fields as geography, zoology, sociology, and history, he shunned material success for the life of a revolutionist. He was imprisoned on political charges (1874-76) but escaped and fled to western Europe. He was imprisoned in France on trumped-up charges of sedition (1883-86), and in 1886 he settled in England, where he remained until the Russian Revolution of 1917 allowed him to return home. While in exile, he wrote several influential books, including Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1899) and Mutual Aid (1902), in which he attempted to put anarchism on a scientific basis and argued that cooperation rather than conflict is the chief factor in the evolution of species. On his return to Russia, he was bitterly disappointed that the Bolsheviks had made their revolution by authoritarian rather than libertarian methods, and he retired from politics
Peter Lawford: {i} (1923-1984) British-born United States movie actor
Peter Levin Shaffer: born May 15, 1926, London, Eng. British playwright. He first won notice for his comedy Five Finger Exercise (1958) and his epic tragedy The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964). His Equus (1973, Tony Award; film, 1977) was a hit in London and New York City. He was also acclaimed for Amadeus (1979), which treated Antonio Salieri's one-sided rivalry with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Shaffer adapted the play for film (1984, Academy Award). His later plays include Lettice and Lovage (1988)
Peter Lombard: born 1100, Novara, Lombardy died Aug. 21/22, 1160, Paris French bishop and theologian. He studied in Bologna and taught theology in the school of Notre-Dame, Paris. He was consecrated bishop of Paris in 1159. His Four Books of Sentences (1148-51), a systematic collection of teachings of the Church Fathers and opinions of medieval theologians, served as the standard theological text of the Middle Ages. In it Peter touched on every doctrinal issue, from God and the Trinity to the four "last things" (death, judgment, hell, and heaven). He asserted that sacraments are the cause and not merely the signal of grace and that human actions may be judged good or bad according to their cause and intention
Peter Lorre: orig. László Loewenstein born June 26, 1904, Rózsahegy, Hung. died March 23, 1964, Hollywood, Calif., U.S. Hungarian-born U.S. film actor. He played bit parts with a German theatrical troupe before earning international fame as the psychotic murderer in the German film M (1931). He left Germany in 1933 and made his English-language debut in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). He went to Hollywood, where he played malevolent characters in movies such as Mad Love (1935), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), and The Beast with Five Fingers (1946). He also starred in the eight Mr. Moto detective movies (1937-39). He later directed and starred in the German film The Lost One (1951)
Peter Mark Roget: born Jan. 18, 1779, London, Eng. died Sept. 12, 1869, West Malvern, Worcestershire English physician and philologist. In 1814 he invented a slide rule for calculating the roots and powers of numbers. He was instrumental in founding the University of London (1828). He is best known for his Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (1852), a comprehensive classification of synonyms or verbal equivalents which he assembled during his retirement. He was a fellow (from 1815) and secretary (from 1827) of the Royal Society
Peter Martins: born Oct. 27, 1946, Copenhagen, Den. Danish-born U.S. dancer, choreographer, and director of the New York City Ballet. He trained at the Royal Danish Ballet School and became a member of its company in 1965. He joined the New York City Ballet in 1969 as a principal dancer and created roles in ballets such as Jerome Robbins's Goldberg Variations (1971) and George Balanchine's Duo Concertante (1972). He began choreographing for the company in 1977 with Calcium Light Night. After Balanchine's death in 1983, Martins became codirector (until 1990) and then sole director of the company
Peter Matthiessen: born May 22, 1927, New York, N.Y., U.S. U.S. naturalist and writer. He attended Yale University and worked as a fisherman on Long Island before undertaking his extensive world travels. His nonfiction, much of it inspired by his career as a naturalist, includes Wildlife in America (1959), The Snow Leopard (1978, National Book Award), and In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (1983). His novels include At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1965; film, 1991), Far Tortuga (1975), and Killing Mister Watson (1990). The Cloud Forest (1996) is a chronicle of his travels in South America
Peter Minuit: born 1589, Wesel, Kleve died June 1638, Caribbean Sea Dutch colonial governor of New Netherland. In 1626 the Dutch West India Co. named him director general of the colony on Manhattan Island. According to legend, to legitimize Dutch occupation of the island he persuaded the Indians to sell it for a handful of trinkets worth about 60 guilders ($24). At the island's southern tip he founded New Amsterdam. He was recalled to Holland (1631) and later was sent to establish the colony of New Sweden on Delaware Bay, where he again purchased land from the Indians and built Fort Christina (later Wilmington, Del.) in 1638
Peter O'Toole: born Aug. 2, 1932, Connemara, County Galway, Ire. British actor. He studied drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He made his London debut in 1956 and played Hamlet in the National Theatre's inaugural production in 1963. His film debut came in Kidnapped (1960), and he won international acclaim for Lawrence of Arabia (1962), for which he won a British Academy Award. Noted for his wit and intensity, he often played uncertain heroes or eccentrics, starring in films such as Becket (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982), The Last Emperor (1987), and Phantoms (1998). His acting range extends from classical drama to contemporary farce. He received an Emmy Award for his performance as Bishop Cauchon in the television miniseries Joan of Arc (1999)
Peter Pan: Peter Pan
Peter Pan: play by the Scottish author James Matthew Barrie adapted into a storybook and a popular animated film; main character in said play by J. M. Barrie
Peter Pan collar: A small, close-fitting, usually flat collar with rounded ends meeting in front
Peter Paul Rubens: a Flemish artist, one of the greatest European painters, who produced several thousand paintings, especially based on religious subjects and scenes from ancient Greek and Roman stories. The women in his paintings usually have attractively large, rather fat bodies, and a woman who looks like this is sometimes called Rubenesque or is compared to a Rubens painting (1577-1640). born June 28, 1577, Siegen, Westphalia died May 30, 1640, Antwerp, Spanish Neth. Flemish painter and diplomat. After apprenticeships in Antwerp, he was admitted to its painters' guild in 1598. He went to Italy in 1600 and until 1608 worked for the duke of Mantua, who in 1603 sent him to Spain to present paintings and other gifts to Philip III, the first of many diplomatic missions he would perform for various courts over three decades. The enormous fame he would achieve made him welcome at royal courts, and sovereigns often discussed affairs of state while they sat for portraits. Returning to the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium) in 1608, he was appointed court painter to the Spanish Habsburg regents, and over the next decade produced numerous altarpieces. A devout Catholic, he became the Counter-Reformation's chief artistic proponent in northern Europe. In 1620 he contracted to design 39 ceiling paintings for the Jesuit church, to be completed by assistants, including the young Anthony Van Dyck. In France he did 21 large canvases for Marie de Médicis and a tapestry cycle for Louis XIII; for Britain his Allegory of Peace and War (1629-30) commemorated the success of his own diplomatic efforts to end hostilities between Britain and Spain, and he decorated the royal Banqueting House for Charles I; in Spain he did more than 60 oil sketches for Philip IV's hunting lodge. Both Charles and Philip knighted him. His output was prodigious. He was the greatest exponent of Baroque painting's dynamism, vitality, and sensual exhuberance. His profound stylistic influence extended over three centuries
Peter Philip Carey: born May 7, 1943, Bacchus Marsh, Vic., Austl. Australian writer. He worked as an advertising copywriter and at other odd jobs until 1988, when he became a full-time writer. His short-story collection The Fat Man in History (1974) contains macabre elements. His novels, more realistic but laced with black humour, include Bliss (1981), Illywhacker (1985), Oscar and Lucinda (1988, Booker Prize), The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith (1994), Jack Maggs (1997), and True History of the Kelly Gang (2000; Booker Prize, 2001)
Peter Principle: The theory that employees within an organization will advance to their highest level of competence and then be promoted to and remain at a level at which they are incompetent
Peter Rabbit: a character from children's stories by Beatrix Potter. He is a young rabbit who often does things that he is not supposed to do, but his mother still forgives him and loves him
Peter Seamus O'Toole: born Aug. 2, 1932, Connemara, County Galway, Ire. British actor. He studied drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He made his London debut in 1956 and played Hamlet in the National Theatre's inaugural production in 1963. His film debut came in Kidnapped (1960), and he won international acclaim for Lawrence of Arabia (1962), for which he won a British Academy Award. Noted for his wit and intensity, he often played uncertain heroes or eccentrics, starring in films such as Becket (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982), The Last Emperor (1987), and Phantoms (1998). His acting range extends from classical drama to contemporary farce. He received an Emmy Award for his performance as Bishop Cauchon in the television miniseries Joan of Arc (1999)
Peter Seeger: born May 3, 1919, New York, N.Y., U.S. U.S. folk singer and songwriter. He was the son of the pioneering ethnomusicologist Charles Seeger (1886-1979) and stepson of the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. Leaving Harvard after two years in 1938, he hitchhiked and rode freight trains around the country, gathering folk songs and developing a virtuosity on the banjo. In 1940 he organized the Almanac Singers with Woody Guthrie and performed widely at union halls and farm meetings. In 1948, with Lee Hays (1926-95), Ronnie Gilbert (b. 1927?), and Fred Hellerman (b. 1927), he formed the Weavers. Shortly after the group became successful, it was blacklisted because of Seeger's previous activities in left-wing and labour politics. He fostered the growth of the hootenanny (a gathering of performers playing and singing for each other, with audience participation), and he wrote folk standards such as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "If I Had a Hammer." He is also known as a prominent supporter of antiwar, civil rights, and environmental causes
Peter Sellars: born Sept. 27, 1957, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S. U.S. stage director. He attended Harvard University, where he began developing his innovative and often controversial style of directing. He is best known for staging plays and operas for numerous international theatres in settings far different than those suggested by the text. His controversial production of Ajax (1986) took the form of a post-Vietnam military trial, and among his many striking opera productions, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni was staged in an urban ghetto, his Così fan tutte in a diner, and his Marriage of Figaro in a corporate high-rise
Peter Sellers: a British actor and comedian who appeared in the British radio programme The Goon Show (1951-59), and is known especially for appearing as the humorous character of Inspector Clouseau, a French police officer who keeps making stupid mistakes and causing accidents in films such as The Pink Panther (1963) and The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) (1925-80). orig. Richard Henry Sellers born Sept. 8, 1925, Southsea, Hampshire, Eng. died July 24, 1980, London British film actor. The son of vaudeville performers, he acted from childhood in his parents' comedy act. In the early 1950s he performed on radio in the popular comedy series The Goon Show. He began appearing in the movies in the mid-1950s; his performances in The Mouse That Roared (1959), I'm All Right, Jack (1959), Lolita (1962), and Dr. Strangelove (1964), in which he played three characters, were especially well received. He was enormously popular as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau in the comedy The Pink Panther (1964) and its sequels, and he later won acclaim for his role as a simpleminded gardener in Being There (1979). His large range of characters earned him international stardom at a time when rigid typecasting was usual
Peter Shaffer: born May 15, 1926, London, Eng. British playwright. He first won notice for his comedy Five Finger Exercise (1958) and his epic tragedy The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964). His Equus (1973, Tony Award; film, 1977) was a hit in London and New York City. He was also acclaimed for Amadeus (1979), which treated Antonio Salieri's one-sided rivalry with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Shaffer adapted the play for film (1984, Academy Award). His later plays include Lettice and Lovage (1988)
Peter Stuyvesant: born 1592, Scherpenzeel, Friesland, Neth. died February 1672, near New York, N.Y. Dutch colonial governor. In 1643 he became director of the Dutch West India Co.'s Caribbean colonies and in 1645 director general of all Dutch possessions in North America, including New Netherland and the Caribbean. He arrived in New Amsterdam (later New York City) in 1647 and soon faced the burghers' demands for self-government. He established a municipal government but continued to control it. He settled the boundary with Connecticut (1650), expelled the Swedes from New Sweden on the Delaware River, and incorporated the colony into Dutch territory (1655). Incursions from the New England colonies and a squadron sent by Charles II forced him to surrender New Netherland to the British (1664)
Peter Taylor: born Jan. 8, 1917, Trenton, Tenn., U.S. died Nov. 2, 1994, Charlottesville, Va. U.S. short-story writer, novelist, and playwright. Taylor studied in the 1930s under several poets associated with the Southern literary renaissance. He taught at various schools, including the University of Virginia. He is best known for his short stories, which are usually set in contemporary Tennessee and which reveal conflicts between the old rural society and the industrialized "New South." The novella A Woman of Means (1950) is perhaps his finest work; his later works include The Old Forest and Other Stories (1985) and A Summons to Memphis (1986, Pulitzer Prize)
Peter Tchaikovsky: {i} (1840-1893) Russian composer
Peter Ulrich Weiss: born Nov. 8, 1916, Nowawes, near Potsdam, Ger. died May 10, 1982, Stockholm, Swed. German playwright. After fleeing Germany in 1934, his family settled in Sweden. Weiss painted and made avant-garde films in the 1950s, then turned to fiction and drama, establishing a reputation in Germany with his novel Exile (1962). He won international acclaim for his play The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (1964; usually referred to as Marat/Sade), which addressed themes of individualism, revolution, and violence. Associated with the Theatre of Fact movement, he also wrote the documentary dramas The Investigation (1965), The Song of the Lusitanian Bogey (1967), and Discourse on Vietnam (1968)
Peter Waldo: or Valdès died before 1218 French religious leader. A successful merchant, Valdès (Peter Waldo was a later form of his name) underwent a religious conversion, gave away his wealth, and began to preach a doctrine of voluntary poverty in Lyon around 1170. In 1179 his vow of poverty was confirmed by Pope Alexander III, but he was forbidden to continue preaching. In 1182 or 1183 he and his followers called the Poor, or the Poor of Lyon were excommunicated for violating the ban on lay preaching and were banished from the city. They were formally condemned at a church council in 1184 along with other heretics, including the Cathari, against whom Valdès had originally preached. The so-called Waldenses were severely persecuted in the 13th century, and their preachers began the practice of traveling and teaching in secret. During the Protestant Reformation, the Waldenses accepted Genevan forms of worship and church organization
Peter Weiss: born Nov. 8, 1916, Nowawes, near Potsdam, Ger. died May 10, 1982, Stockholm, Swed. German playwright. After fleeing Germany in 1934, his family settled in Sweden. Weiss painted and made avant-garde films in the 1950s, then turned to fiction and drama, establishing a reputation in Germany with his novel Exile (1962). He won international acclaim for his play The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (1964; usually referred to as Marat/Sade), which addressed themes of individualism, revolution, and violence. Associated with the Theatre of Fact movement, he also wrote the documentary dramas The Investigation (1965), The Song of the Lusitanian Bogey (1967), and Discourse on Vietnam (1968)
Peter principles: humorous theory which describes the tendency of bureaucracies to promote employees till they reach their level of incompetence
Peter the Great: the tsar (=ruler) of Russia from 1682-1725 (1672-1725)
Peter the Great: 17th-18th century Russian Czar who worked to transform Russia into a more progressive nation
Peter the Great Bay: Inlet, Sea of Japan, northwestern Pacific Ocean, in southeastern Russia. It extends for 115 mi (185 km) from the mouth of the Tumen River northeast across to Cape Povorotny. The bay reaches inland for 55 mi (88 km) and contains the port of Vladivostok. The bay freezes from early December to mid-April
Peter the Hermit: French monk and preacher of the First Crusade (1095) who founded (c. 1100) the Augustinian monastery of Neufmoutier in Belgium. born 1050, probably Amiens died July 8, 1115, Huy, Flanders French ascetic and one of the most important preachers of the First Crusade. A charismatic ascetic, he preached widely in Europe in support of the First Crusade and led his enthusiastic followers to Constantinople in 1096. They advanced to Nicomedia, but Peter was unable to maintain discipline; he returned to Constantinople to ask for help from Alexius I, and in his absence his army was annihilated by the Turks. Peter reached Jerusalem in 1099 and afterwards returned to France, where he became prior of an Augustinian monastery
Peter the Venerable: born 1092, Montboissier, Auvergne, Arles died Dec. 25, 1156, Cluny, Burgundy French abbot of Cluny (from 1122). He joined Bernard de Clairvaux in supporting Pope Innocent II and weakened the position of the antipope Anacletus II. He befriended Peter Abelard and reconciled him to Bernard and the pope. Peter's reforms restored Cluny to its prominence among the religious establishments of Europe. He also wrote numerous letters and treatises against heresy, the Jews, and the Muslims and commissioned the first Latin translation of the Qurn
Peter's Pence: In medieval England, an annual tax of a penny paid by landowners to the papal treasury in Rome. Peter's Pence was instituted during the 7th or 8th century and continued until the 16th century. It also existed in several northern European kingdoms
Peter's pence: {i} annual voluntary contribution that Roman Catholics give toward the expenses of the papal, hearth money
Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater: well known children's nursery rhyme, one of the Mother Goose nursery rhymes
peter i: Petersburg (1682-1725)
peter i: czar of Russia who introduced ideas from western Europe to reform the government; he extended his territories in the Baltic and founded St
peter out: end weakly; "The music just petered out--there was no proper ending"
peter out: disappear, fade out of sight; die out, be extinguished; be used up, run out
peter out: use up all one's strength and energy and stop working; "At the end of the march, I pooped out"
peter pan: Barrie; a boy who won't grow up a boyish or immature man; after the boy in Barrie's play who never grows up
peter pan: the main character in a play by J
peter pan collar: a flat collar with rounded ends that meet in front
1 Peter: The first epistle of Peter, a book of the New Testament of the Bible
2 Peter: The second epistle of Peter, a book of the New Testament of the Bible
Peters: plural form of Peter
Peters: An English patronymic surname derived from the given name Peter
Saint Peter Port: A town, and capital of Guernsey
blue peter: A blue signal flag with a white rectangle in the centre, signifying "P". When flown alone, indicates that a ship is ready to sail, requiring all crew members and passengers to return on board
We lay out in the stream for another whole day, with the Blue Peter flying, to show that we were ready for sea, and to summon any passengers who might yet remain on shore. — W.H.G. Kingston, Peter the Whaler, 1851.
rob Peter to pay Paul: To use resources that legitimately belong to or are needed by one party in order to satisfy a legitimate need of another party, especially within the same organization or group; to solve a problem in a way that makes another problem worse, producing no net gain
OMB decided that a large part of the money would come from other health programs for poor women and children. That penny-pinching tactic sparked an outcry. . . . Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri denounced the plan as pitting one city's babies against another city's babies. Florida Governor Lawton Chiles, who chairs the National Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality, said it amounted to robbing Peter to pay Paul..
robbing Peter to pay Paul: Present participle of rob Peter to pay Paul
saint peter: Disciple of Jesus and leader of the apostles; regarded by Catholics as the vicar of Christ on earth and first Pope; (synonym) Peter, Simon Peter, St. Peter, Saint Peter the Apostle, St. Peter the Apostle
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth Viscount Northcliffe of Saint Peter: born July 15, 1865, Chapelizod, near Dublin, Ire. died Aug. 14, 1922, London, Eng. British newspaper publisher. After an impoverished childhood and a few attempts to make a quick fortune, he joined his brother, Harold Sidney Harmsworth (1868-1940), in publishing popular periodicals that formed the basis of Amalgamated Press, at the time the world's largest periodical publishing empire. In 1896 he started the Daily Mail, one of the first British newspapers to popularize its coverage to appeal to a mass readership. He also founded the Daily Mirror (1903) and bought The Times (1908), transforming it into a modern newspaper. His influence was greatest in shifting the press away from its traditional informative role to that of the commercial exploiter and entertainer of mass publics. He has been considered the most successful publisher in the history of the British press
Amadeo Peter Giannini: born May 6, 1870, San Jose, Calif., U.S. died June 3, 1949, San Mateo, Calif. U.S. banker and innovator in personal banking products. The son of Italian immigrants, he left school at age 13 to work in the family wholesale produce business, becoming a partner in 1889. In 1904 he and five partners founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco. Their bank followed an unorthodox program of making loans to small farmers and businessmen and actively soliciting customers. In 1909 he began buying banks elsewhere in California, eventually creating the first statewide branch-banking system in the U.S. He established the Transamerica Corporation in 1928. After acquiring a second network of branch banks, he merged the two in 1930 under the name Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association. By the time of his death, Bank of America had more than 500 branch banks, with more than $6 billion in deposits
Carl August Peter Cornelius: {i} Peter Cornelius (1824-1874), German composer and poet
Finley Peter Dunne: born July 10, 1867, Chicago, Ill., U.S. died April 24, 1936, New York, N.Y. U.S. journalist and humorist. A son of Irish immigrants, Dunne began contributing Irish-dialect sketches to Chicago newspapers in 1892. In these he created the character Martin Dooley, who commented on current events in a rich Irish brogue. Mr. Dooley soon became a force for clear thinking and tolerance in public affairs. Dunne wrote more than 700 dialect essays, some of which were republished in eight volumes, including Mr. Dooley in Peace and War and Mr. Dooley's Philosophy, from 1898 to 1919
Franz Peter Schubert: born Jan. 31, 1797, Himmelpfortgrund, near Vienna died Nov. 19, 1828, Vienna Austrian composer. He learned violin from his schoolteacher father and piano from his brother. He joined the precursor of the Vienna Boys Choir (1808), making such quick progress that Antonio Salieri undertook to guide his training (1810-16). At his family's insistence, he was trained as a schoolteacher. In 1815 he wrote 2 symphonies, more than 100 songs, and 4 stage works. In 1818, seeking independence, he quit teaching at his father's school to tutor Johann Esterházy's daughters. In 1819-20 he wrote the celebrated Trout Quintet and a mass. In 1821, 20 of his most popular songs were published with great success, and he wrote the three-act opera Alfonso und Estrella. Despite his first awareness of the disease (possibly syphilis) that would kill him, his amazing production continued in 1822, with the Unfinished Symphony and the Wanderer Fantasy. He was often ill during his last five years but continued his production of music, including the song cycles The Miller's Beautiful Daughter and Winter Journey, the last three piano sonatas, and the Great Symphony. His last years were made miserable by illness, not poverty; in fact, his greatness was widely recognized. He died at 31, having produced more masterpieces by that age than almost any other composer in history. His 600 songs made the lied a serious genre and sparked its great development in subsequent decades
Johannes Peter Müller: born July 14, 1801, Koblenz, France died April 28, 1858, Berlin, Ger. German physiologist, comparative anatomist, and natural philosopher. He studied at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin and later taught at both. His discovery that each sense organ responds to stimuli differently implied that external events are perceived only by the changes they produce in sensory systems. His investigations in physiology, evolution, and comparative anatomy contributed to knowledge of reflexes, the secretion and coagulation processes, the composition of blood and lymph, vision, and hearing. His studies of tumour cell structure began to establish pathological histology as a branch of science
John Peter Altgeld: born Dec. 30, 1847, Niederselters, Prussia died March 12, 1902, Joliet, Ill., U.S. German-born U.S. politician, governor of Illinois (1893-97). He emigrated from Germany as a child. In the 1870s he moved to Chicago, where he accumulated a small fortune in real estate and became active in Democratic Party politics. In 1892 he won the governorship as a reformist candidate. In 1893, at the urging of Clarence Darrow and labour leaders, he granted clemency to three men convicted of complicity in the Haymarket Riot. The controversial pardon provoked an outcry from conservatives and contributed to his defeat for reelection in 1896, though Altgeld's decision later gained wide approval in judicial circles
John Peter Zenger: born 1697, Germany died July 28, 1746, New York, N.Y. German-born U.S. printer and journalist. He immigrated to New York at age 13 and was indentured to a printer before starting his own printing business (1726). In 1733 he began publishing the New York Weekly Journal. Arrested for libel in 1734 for his attacks on the policies of the colonial governor, he was acquitted on the grounds that his charges were based on fact (a key consideration in libel cases since that time). It was the first important victory for freedom of the press in Britain's North American colonies
Lord Peter Wimsey: the main character in the books by Dorothy L. Sayers. He is an English lord who is also a detective, and he is very good at solving crimes
Peters: plural of Peter
Saint Peter: the leader of Jesus Christ's twelve disciples (=his close friends and followers) , who became the leader of the first Christians. He is considered by Catholics to be the first Pope, and Christians think of him as being in charge of the keys of the gates to Heaven. He is sometimes called Simon Peter. Peter, Saint
Saint Peter Damian: born 1007, Ravenna died Feb. 22, 1072, Faenze; feast day February 21 Italian cardinal and Doctor of the Church. He was prior of Fonte Avellana in the Apennines before being named a cardinal in 1057. A leading monastic reformer and ascetic, he played an important role in the promotion of apostolic poverty and in support of papal reformers who sought to enforce clerical celibacy and abolish simony. He defended Pope Alexander II against the antipope Honorius II and reconciled Alexander with the city of Ravenna. He was also sent as a papal legate to resolve disputes in Milan and Cluny, Burgundy, and he played a key role in the formulation of the papal election decree of 1059
Saint Peter the Apostle: orig. Simon died AD 64, Rome Disciple of Jesus, recognized as the leader of the Twelve Apostles. Jesus called him Cephas (Aramaic for "Rock"; rendered in Greek as "Petros") and said "Upon this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16: 18). When Jesus was arrested, according to the biblical account, Peter denied him three times, as Jesus had foretold. Accounts of Peter's life and ministry rely on the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the epistles of Peter, and the epistles of St. Paul. Peter worked with Paul in Antioch and later carried on missionary work in Asia Minor. According to tradition, he eventually went to Rome, where he suffered martyrdom by being crucified upside down. Saint Peter's Basilica is said to have been built on the site of his grave in Rome. In Roman Catholicism he is regarded as the first in the unbroken succession of popes. Jesus' promise to give him the "keys of the kingdom" led to the popular perception of Peter as the gatekeeper of heaven. The Roman Catholic church celebrates five feast days in honour of Peter, and in each the name of Paul is associated
Saint Peter's: the largest Christian church in the western world, in the Vatican City in Rome, built in the 16th century. It is the most important church in the Roman Catholic religion, and the artist Michelangelo was one of its main designers
Saint Peter's Basilica: Present church of St. Peter's in Rome, begun by Pope Julius II in 1506 and completed in 1615. It is the church of the popes and one of the world's largest churches. It was built to replace Old St. Peter's, erected by Constantine over Peter's traditional burial place. According to the original plan of Donato Bramante, it was to take the form of a Greek cross around a central dome. Successive architects, including Raphael, drew fresh plans after Bramante's death, modifying the original Greek-cross plan to a Latin cross. Antonio da Sangallo the Younger returned to Bramante's symmetrical plan. Michelangelo, who followed Sangallo, nearly completed the drum for the massive dome before his death. Pope Paul V (r. 1605-21) then insisted on a longitudinal plan for liturgical reasons and adopted the plan of Carlo Maderno (1556-1629), which extended the nave to the east. Gian Lorenzo Bernini added the elliptical piazza, lined by colonnades, that serves as the approach to the basilica. The interior is filled with Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces, including Michelangelo's Pietà, Bernini's baldachin, a statue of St. Longinus, the tomb of Urban VIII, and a bronze throne of St. Peter
Saint Peter's Square: the very large square outside Saint Peter's in Rome, where thousands of people gather to hear the Pope give special messages at Christmas and Easter
Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov: born April 16, 1921, London, Eng. died March 28, 2004, Genolier, Switz. British actor, director, author, and playwright. He made his professional stage debut at age 17, in which he displayed his talents for vocal mimicry and age affectation, and landed his first major screen role in The Goose Steps Out (1942). His film appearances include Lola Montès (1955), Spartacus (1960, Academy Award), Topkapi (1964, Academy Award), and a recurring role as Hercule Poirot in movies based on Agatha Christie's mysteries, beginning with Death on the Nile (1978). He both starred in and directed Billy Budd (1962), among other films. Lady L (1965), with Sophia Loren and Paul Newman, was probably his best-received directorial effort. He wrote successful plays such as The Love of Four Colonels (1951) and Romanoff and Juliet (1956) and won Emmy Awards for his television performances in The Life of Samuel Johnson (1957), Barefoot in Athens (1966), and A Storm in Summer (1970). Ustinov also wrote several novels and the autobiographical works Dear Me (1977), Ustinov at Large (1993), and Ustinov Still at Large (1994). Noted for his humanitarian efforts, he served as ambassador at large for UNICEF from 1969 until his death. Ustinov was knighted in 1990
Sir Peter B Medawar: born Feb. 28, 1915, Rio de Janeiro, Braz. died Oct. 2, 1987, London, Eng. Brazilian-born British zoologist. Educated at Oxford, he began transplant research in 1949. His finding (1953) that adult animals injected with foreign cells early in life accept skin grafts from the original donor or its twin lent support to Macfarlane Burnet's hypothesis that cells learn, during and just after birth, to distinguish "own" from "foreign." He found that nonidentical cattle twins accept skin grafts from each other, proving that antigens "leak" between the embryos' yolk sacs, and showed with mice that each cell contains genetic antigens important to immunity. His work deflected immunology from dealing with the fully developed immunity mechanism to attempting to alter the mechanism itself (e.g., suppression of transplant rejection). He and Burnet shared a 1960 Nobel Prize
Sir Peter Brian Medawar: born Feb. 28, 1915, Rio de Janeiro, Braz. died Oct. 2, 1987, London, Eng. Brazilian-born British zoologist. Educated at Oxford, he began transplant research in 1949. His finding (1953) that adult animals injected with foreign cells early in life accept skin grafts from the original donor or its twin lent support to Macfarlane Burnet's hypothesis that cells learn, during and just after birth, to distinguish "own" from "foreign." He found that nonidentical cattle twins accept skin grafts from each other, proving that antigens "leak" between the embryos' yolk sacs, and showed with mice that each cell contains genetic antigens important to immunity. His work deflected immunology from dealing with the fully developed immunity mechanism to attempting to alter the mechanism itself (e.g., suppression of transplant rejection). He and Burnet shared a 1960 Nobel Prize
Sir Peter Brook: born March 21, 1925, London, Eng. British director and producer. After directing plays in Stratford-upon-Avon, he became director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1947-50). He directed several innovative Shakespearean productions that aroused controversy. Appointed codirector of the Royal Shakespeare Co. in 1962, he directed critically acclaimed productions of King Lear (1962) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970). He won international fame with his avant-garde direction of Peter Weiss's play Marat/Sade (1964). His films include Lord of the Flies (1962), King Lear (1969), and the six-hour Mahabharata (1989). In 1970 he cofounded, with Jean-Louis Barrault, the International Centre for Theatre Research
Sir Peter Hall: born Nov. 22, 1930, Bury Saint Edmonds, Suffolk, Eng. British theatre, opera, and film director. After producing and acting in plays at Cambridge University, he entered the professional theatre. At London's Arts Theatre (1955-56) he staged London premieres of important continental plays. Especially renowned for his Shakespearean productions, he was managing director of the Royal Shakespeare Co. (1962-68) and continued to direct plays for it long afterward. He succeeded Laurence Olivier as managing director of London's National Theatre (1973-88). He formed his own theatrical production company in 1988 and also directed operas and several films
Sir Peter Markham Scott: born Sept. 14, 1909, London, Eng. died Aug. 29, 1989, Bristol British conservationist and artist. Son of Robert Falcon Scott, he graduated from Cambridge University and soon gained renown as a wildlife painter. In 1946 he founded the Severn Wildfowl Trust (later renamed the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust). Through a captive breeding program at his sanctuary, he saved the nene from extinction in the 1950s. In 1961 he founded the World Wildlife Fund (World Wide Fund for Nature). As a member of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (1962-81), he created the Red Data Book (see endangered species). He was knighted in 1973
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: a British composer of modern classical music. His works include the operas Taverner (1972), The Martyrdom of St Magnus (1977), The Lighthouse (1980), and Resurrection (1987) (1934-). born Sept. 8, 1934, Manchester, Eng. British composer. He studied in England, Italy, and the U.S. He cofounded the contemporary ensemble The Fires of London and was its musical director (1970-87); he wrote many of his works for the group. Since 1970 he has lived and composed primarily in the remote Orkney Islands. He has written many musical theatre works and has conducted orchestras worldwide. His most famous compositions are Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969) and An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise; his other works include Vesalii Icones (1969), Miss Donnithorne's Maggot (1974), and Ave maris stella (1975); the operas Taverner (1968), The Martyrdom of St. Magnus (1976), and Le Jongleur de Notre Dame (1978); and seven symphonies
Sir Peter Medawar: a British zoologist (=a scientist who studies animals and their behaviour) , who made important discoveries about the immune system (=the system that your body uses to protect itself from disease) . He won a Nobel Prize for medicine (1915-87)
Sir Peter Pears: a British tenor (=a male singer with a fairly high voice) . In 1948 he started the Aldeburgh Festival with his partner, the musician Benjamin Britten, who wrote a lot of vocal music and operas for him (1910-86)
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall: born Nov. 22, 1930, Bury Saint Edmonds, Suffolk, Eng. British theatre, opera, and film director. After producing and acting in plays at Cambridge University, he entered the professional theatre. At London's Arts Theatre (1955-56) he staged London premieres of important continental plays. Especially renowned for his Shakespearean productions, he was managing director of the Royal Shakespeare Co. (1962-68) and continued to direct plays for it long afterward. He succeeded Laurence Olivier as managing director of London's National Theatre (1973-88). He formed his own theatrical production company in 1988 and also directed operas and several films
Sir Peter Stephen Paul Brook: born March 21, 1925, London, Eng. British director and producer. After directing plays in Stratford-upon-Avon, he became director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1947-50). He directed several innovative Shakespearean productions that aroused controversy. Appointed codirector of the Royal Shakespeare Co. in 1962, he directed critically acclaimed productions of King Lear (1962) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970). He won international fame with his avant-garde direction of Peter Weiss's play Marat/Sade (1964). His films include Lord of the Flies (1962), King Lear (1969), and the six-hour Mahabharata (1989). In 1970 he cofounded, with Jean-Louis Barrault, the International Centre for Theatre Research
Sir Peter Ustinov: born April 16, 1921, London, Eng. died March 28, 2004, Genolier, Switz. British actor, director, author, and playwright. He made his professional stage debut at age 17, in which he displayed his talents for vocal mimicry and age affectation, and landed his first major screen role in The Goose Steps Out (1942). His film appearances include Lola Montès (1955), Spartacus (1960, Academy Award), Topkapi (1964, Academy Award), and a recurring role as Hercule Poirot in movies based on Agatha Christie's mysteries, beginning with Death on the Nile (1978). He both starred in and directed Billy Budd (1962), among other films. Lady L (1965), with Sophia Loren and Paul Newman, was probably his best-received directorial effort. He wrote successful plays such as The Love of Four Colonels (1951) and Romanoff and Juliet (1956) and won Emmy Awards for his television performances in The Life of Samuel Johnson (1957), Barefoot in Athens (1966), and A Storm in Summer (1970). Ustinov also wrote several novels and the autobiographical works Dear Me (1977), Ustinov at Large (1993), and Ustinov Still at Large (1994). Noted for his humanitarian efforts, he served as ambassador at large for UNICEF from 1969 until his death. Ustinov was knighted in 1990
St. Peter's fish: type of edible fish
blue peter: a blue flag with a white square in the center indicates that the vessel is ready to sail
blue peter: {i} blue signal flag that has a white square in its middle (vessels use it to signal that they are ready to sail)
blue peter: A blue flag with a white square in the center, flown to signal that a ship is ready to sail. a children's programme that has been on British television since the late 1950s. It is known for encouraging children to collect money or things for people who are poor or sick, and for showing them how to do and make useful things
duke von Holstein-Gottorp Karl Peter Ulrich: Russian Pyotr Fyodorovich orig. Karl Peter Ulrich, duke von Holstein-Gottorp born Feb. 21, 1728, Kiel, Holstein-Gottorp died July 18, 1762, Ropsha, near St. Petersburg, Russia Tsar of Russia (1762). Grandson of Peter I, the young duke was brought to Russia by his aunt Elizabeth when she became empress (1741). Proclaimed the heir to the Russian throne, he was unpopular at court for his pro-Prussian attitude. After he succeeded Elizabeth (1762), he reversed her foreign policy, making peace with Prussia and withdrawing from the Seven Years' War. He offended the Orthodox church by trying to force it to adopt Lutheran practices. After six months he was forced to abdicate by a group of nobles, in collusion with his own wife, Catherine (later Catherine II), and Count Grigory Orlov, and was murdered while in the conspirators' custody
first epistle of peter: the first New Testament book traditionally attributed to Saint Peter the Apostle
peters: third-person singular of peter
peters: penises
saints peter and paul: first celebrated in the 3rd century
second epistle of peter: the second New Testament book traditionally attributed to Saint Peter the Apostle
shock-headed Peter: disheveled Peter, unkempt Peter
st peter's wort: European perennial St John's wort; Ireland and France to western Siberia