What is a peer?

Anna Raccoon has the requisite definitions.

Here's an extract:

"Noun.
A Peer – Oxford English Dictionary definition.
1 A nobleman.
2 A man who holds a peerage by descent or appointment.

Noun.
A Peer – Nu-Labour definition.
1 A man or woman elevated to the peerage by their Nu-Labour cronies.

2 A Woman who a-peers to break the law when in fact only ‘in technical breach’ of the rules.

3 A Woman who a-peers to make ‘an administrative technical error’ when finding herself on the receiving end of the ’stronger message that such behaviour is both illegal and unacceptable’. (Hansard April 2004)"