PEAKY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does peaky mean? 

• PEAKY (adjective)
  The adjective PEAKY has 1 sense:

1. having or as if having especially high-pitched spots

  Familiarity information: PEAKY used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PEAKY (adjective)

Comparative: peakier   
Superlative: peakiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having or as if having especially high-pitched spots

Synonyms:

peaky; spiky

Context example:

absence of peaky highs and beefed-up bass

Similar:

high; high-pitched (used of sounds and voices; high in pitch or frequency)

Derivation:

peak (the most extreme possible amount or value)

 Context examples 

His features were peaky and sallow, and his little pointed beard was thready and ill-nourished.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The other, clad in a dirty russet suit with a long sweeping doublet, had a cunning, foxy face with keen, twinkling eyes and a peaky beard.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Still, I could not bring myself to desert Jim; and so, as I say, I slunk about the house with so pale and peaky a face that my dear mother would have it that I had been at the green apples, and sent me to bed early with a dish of camomile tea for my supper.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yet here you bring me to a shred of a man, peaky and ill-nourished, with eyes like a moulting owl, who must needs, forsooth, take counsel with his mother ere he buckle sword to girdle.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)