peek

B2 · Upper Intermediate Informal

v. to be just barely visible, like something coming out from behind a cloud.

v. to be only partially or slightly visible, as if emerging from a hiding place or cover.

“The sun began to peek through the clouds after the heavy rain.”

“A few bright green shoots were starting to peek through the melting snow, signalling the arrival of early spring.”

C2 · Proficiency Computing Technical · Archaic

v. to look at a specific piece of information stored in a computer's memory.

v. to retrieve a value from a specific memory address, common in early programming languages like BASIC.

“The programmer used a command to peek at the data in that memory slot.”

“In legacy systems, developers would frequently peek and poke memory addresses to manipulate hardware registers directly.”

B1 · Intermediate Countable noun Informal

n. a quick or secret look at something.

n. a brief or surreptitious glance.

“Take a peek inside the box and tell me what you see.”

“The curator allowed us a sneak peek of the new exhibit before it officially opened to the general public.”