Dear WW: I remember it too. But dictionaries online were not so easy to find then, particularly ones that gave obsolete definitions. Wonderful how new resources keep appearing. Just the other day I found a new and better source for French words. Also there is now a lot more German things. Actually that usage of "peremptory" is a sort of crypto-ellipsis: it only makes sense if you mentally supply the word "manner" or some similar word.