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The following is from the OED (Oxford English Dictionary)--what I consider the definitive authority on most everything.. I think Murray Charters had it about right -- and probably from the same source. Nancy Shlaes deGrazia (63/57) peter, v.2 slang or colloq. [Origin unknown.] 1. trans. To cease, stop, leave off. slang. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Peter that, synonymous with stow that. 2. a. intr. (orig. U.S. Mining colloq.) To diminish gradually and cease; to run out and disappear (as a stream, a vein of ore); to die out, give out, fail, come to an end. Usu. const. out. Hence 'petering-out vbl. n. 1846 Quincy (Illinois) Whig 6 Jan. 1/4 When my mineral petered why they all Petered me. If so be I gets a lead, why I’m Mr. Tiff again. 1854 H. H. Riley Puddleford vi. 84 He ‘hoped this ’spectable meeting war n’t going to Peter-out’. a1865 A. Lincoln in McClure Life (1896) 133 The store in which he clerked was ‘petering out’–to use his own expression. 1865 S. Bowles Across Continent 133 Humboldt River..runs west and south from three hundred to five hundred miles, and then finds ignominious end in a ‘sink’, or..quietly ‘peters out’. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Peter or peter out, to fail gradually in size, quantity, or quality. 1883 Stevenson Silverado Sq., Childr. Israel i, But the luck had failed, the mines petered out. 1892 Sat. Rev. 9 Jan. 45/1 Human effort of all kinds tends..to ‘peter out’. 1923 R. Macaulay Told by Idiot iii. 221 The year and the government petered towards their end. 1926 E. F. Spanner Naviators 100 Lucky your engine petered out, Sterne. 1944 F. Clune Red Heart 6 The fabulous silver-lead wealth..has enticed a city of 15,000 inhabitants to arise in the desert wastes–and there they will continue to dwell until the lode peters. 1949 ‘J. Tey’ Brat Farrar xix. 170 The..petering-out of the poorer suburbs. 1955 Times 28 June 3/3 With the end of this partnership, however, the innings virtually petered out. 1976 Quoddy Tides (Eastport, Maine) 13 Aug. 4/4 Hurricane ‘Belle’..petered out before reaching the Quoddy area. b. trans. To exhaust; to cause or allow to peter out; const. away, to squander. Freq. as ppl. adj. 1869 Overland Monthly III. 127 After a long desert journey the oxen become much ‘petered’. jo ann coen wrote: > Darwin - I remember my Mother's favorite saying when she was tired, that > she was "all petered out". When I was in the 3rd grace (a few years > ago) the teacher asked me if I was tired, and I said, "yes, I'm all > petered out". Well, she rushed me to the principal's office > (not the first time) and they explained to me that that was not a "nice" > thing for girls to say. I told them My Mother said it, why couldn't I? > Well, they were speechless. Now that I'm older (much older), I know > exactly what that phrase means - and so do you. > Jo Ann