The Collaborative International Dictionary
Peter \Pet"er\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Petered; p. pr. & vb. n. Petering.] [Etymol. uncertain.] To become exhausted; to run out; to fail; -- used generally with out; as, that mine has petered out. [Slang, U.S.]
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of peter English)
Usage examples of "petering".
The edge of the storm began petering out just before the ship passed the twenty-degree latitude line.
One is quoted as saying: 'He's a walking hard-on, always coming on and usually petering out at the sticking point.
The city was some sixty miles away on the coast, the road petering out into rocky tracks and high hills.
Can it be explained by the usual petering out of parents’ enthusiasm for documenting their children on film?
The investigation had dragged on for nearly eighteen months, petering out to nothing in the end.
Lake Baringo was at 3300 feet with mountains towering all round it and only a single track running north, soon petering out into a broken red thread in the vast emptiness of the Rift Valley as it sloped down to Lake Rudolf.