Meaning

noun a secret look

verb throw a glance at; take a brief look at

originFrom Middle English *peken, piken, pyken (“to peep”), probably a fusion of Middle English pepen (“to peep”) and keken, kiken (“to keek, look, spy”), equivalent to a blend of peep + keek. Perhaps also possibly a metathetic alteration of Middle English kepen, kipen, kypen (“to keep, look, observe, watch”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0